HOME  LIFE  IN 
CHINA 


BY 

ISAAC   TAYLOR   HEADLAND 

PH.D.,    PROFESSOR  IN   PEKING  UNIVERSITY 


n 


WITH    FOUR    PLATES    IN    COLOUR    AND    TWELVE 
OTHER    ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW  YORK 

THE  MAGMILLAN  COMPANY 

1914 


TO 

Mr  WIFE 


328261 


PREFACE 

THE  home  life  of  a  people  is  too  sacred  to  be 
touched  except  by  the  hand  of  friendship. 
The  doors  of  our  homes  all  open  inward, 
and  our  latch  should  not  be  lifted  except  by 
those  who  love  us.  Enter  if  you  will  as  brother, 
sister,  friend  ;  but  once  you  have  entered,  go 
not  away  to  scoff  or  ridicule.  Our  enemies  may 
enter  our  yamens,  our  factories,  our  business, 
but  they  come  not  into  our  homes.  Our  doors 
are  closed  to  strangers,  locked  to  enemies,  and 
opened  only  to  those  of  our  own  race  who  are  in 
harmony  and  sympathy  with  us. 

In  this  study  of  Chinese  Home  Life  I  have  not 
sought  things  to  criticize  ;  I  have  not  hunted  for 
comparisons  with  our  own  which  might  appear 
often  as  odious  to  us  as  to  them  ;  I  have  not 
tried  to  find  things  to  commend  ;  I  have  simply 
tried  to  find  them  and  tell  them  as  they  are. 
But  I  have  always  done  it  in  a  kindly  spirit. 

My  readers  will  find  many  things  omitted  that 
they  will  wish  had  been  told  ;  they  may  find 
some  things  which  might  well  have  been  omitted ; 
they  may  wish  that  it  had  been  a  woman  who 


Vll 


viii  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

had  written  the  book  instead  of  a  man,  for  only 
a  woman,  we  are  often  told,  can  appreciate  the 
things  of  women,  children,  and  home.  Be  it  so 
—but   still   the   largest   women's  journals  are 

edited  by  men. 

I.  T.  H. 


HOME  LIFE  IN  CHINA 


■     '.    '    . 


- 


i 


J 


V 


I     S 1 N  ( ;  1 N 


CONTENTS 


CHAP. 

I.  Introductory 

PAGE 
I 

II.  Children  and  Child-Life  . 

9 

III.  School  Life  of  Children  . 

•      23 

IV.  Education  of  the  Poor    . 

.      42 

V.  Rules  of  Behaviour  for  Children 

.      49 

VI.  Girls 

.      61 

VII.  The  Classic  for  Girls 

.      69 

VIII.  Marriage 

.      81 

"  IX.  Women 

■      89 

X.  Housewives 

.     102 

XI.  Motherhood        .... 

.     109 

XII.  Concubinage        .... 

•    113 

XIII.  Religion 

■     123 

XIV.  Family  Ceremonies    . 

.     131 

XV.  Marriage  Ceremonies 

.    141 

XVI.  Funeral  Ceremonies  . 

.    147 

XVII.  Ancestor-Worship 

•    154 

XVIII.  Servants 

.    161 

XIX.  Food 

.     171 

XX.  Shops  and  Markets    . 

.     182 

XXI.  Expense  of  Living     . 

.     192 

XXII.  Travel  :  Inns  and  Restaurants 

.     202 

IX 


HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 


CHAP. 

XXIII. 

Summer  Resorts      . 

rAut 

.      211 

XXIV. 

How  the  Poor  Live 

.    219 

XXV. 

Peasant  Life 

.     226 

XXVI. 

Oddities  of  Every-day  Life 

•    235 

XXVII. 

Chinese  Names  and  Nicknames 

•     243 

XXVIII. 

Chinese  Superstitions    . 

•    257 

XXIX. 

Chinese  Humour 

.    269 

XXX. 

The  Unscientific  Chinese 

.     280 

XXXI. 

Dress  and  Hospitality  . 

.    288 

XXXII. 

Doing  Things  Backward 

.     296 

XXXIII. 

Recent  Changes  in  Home  Life 

.     301 

Index       

•    315 

LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

A  Chinese  Singing  Girl       .        .        .        frontispiece 

From  a  drawing  by  Vera  Waddington. 

FACING    PAGE 

A  Young  Mandarin 10 

From  a  drawing  by  Vera  Waddington. 

The  Warriors 24 

From  a  painting  on  silk  by  Yang  Chu-hsi. 

The  Toilet 62 

From  a  drawing  by  Vera  Waddington. 

The  Bride 82 

From  a  drawing  by  Vera  Waddington. 

'Hsiao  Ch'ing,  Little  Bright,  the  Singing 

Girl 100 

From  a  drawing  by  Vera  Waddington. 

A  Sage  in  Winter 128 

From  a  drawing  by  Vera  Waddington. 

A  "  Boy  "  eating  his  Dinner  on  the  Deck 

of  a  Native  Boat 166 

From  a  photograph  by  H.  S.  Elliott. 

Children  at  Play 184 

From  a  painting  on  silk  by  Yang  Chu-hsi. 

The  Courtyard  of  a  Chinese  Inn  .        .        .    204 

From  a  photograph  by  Dr.  Marcus  L.  Taft. 

A  Beggar  of  Canton 220 

From  a  drawing  by  Vera  Waddington. 


xii  LIST    OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING    PAGE 

A  Typical  Native  Hut 226 

From  a  photograph  by  Dr.  Marcus  L.  Taft. 

A  Girl  with  a  Bird 240 

From  a  drawing  by  Vera  Waddington. 

Children's  Games  :  The  Musicians         .        .    274 

From  a  painting  on  silk  by  Yang  Chu-hsi. 

Beggar  Children,  Canton   ....  302 

From  a  drawing  by  Vera  Waddington. 

A  Game  of  Dominoes 312 

From  a  painting  on  silk  by  Yang  Clm-hsi. 


HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

CHAPTER   1 

INTRODUCTORY 

I  WISH  to  say  in  the  beginning  that  it  will 
not  be  my  design  to  give  a  dark  picture 
of  the  Chinese  home,  neither  will  I  try 
to  paint  any  pictures  in  high  colours.  There 
will  be  bright  as  well  as  dark  pictures  in  poor 
as  in  rich  homes.  There  are  many  people  who 
suppose  that  because  a  child  is  poor  it  leads 
a  dull  life. 

Now  it  was  my  fortune — as  it  was  yours — 
to  be  born  a  barefoot  child.  But  it  was  my 
good  fortune — as  it  may  not  have  been  yours — 
to  have  grown  up  a  barefoot  boy,  for  no  one 
who  has  been  raised  in  affluence  and  ease  can 
appreciate  the  joys  and  sorrows  of  the  poor. 
A  farmer's  boy,  compelled  to  struggle  from 
morn  till  night,  to  help  to  pay  rent  and  make 
a  living,  can  have  more  fun  on  a  single  fourth 
of  July  or  Christmas  holiday,  with  twenty-five 
cents  to  spend,  than  a  son  of  wealth,  with  three 
hundred  and  sixty-five  days  of  idleness  and  an 
unlimited  bank  account,  can  have  in  a  year.  We 
will  therefore  not  take  it  for  granted  that  a 


2  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

child  is  not  happy  because  it  is  poor,  nor  will 
we  suppose  that  a  child  is  happy  because  it  is 
rich.  It  is  a  great  thing  to  have  been  born 
poor  and  to  have  grown  up  through  all  grades 
of  society.  It  helps  you  to  understand  chil- 
dren. It  helps  you  to  understand  men.  It 
helps  you  to  see  the  occasions  for  smiles  as 
well  as  for  tears  in  the  homes  of  all  grades  of 
society.  It  is  hard  to  judge  properly  what 
you  have  not  yourself  lived  through. 

Let  us  now  take  a  peep  at  a  Chinese  home, 

— or  the  house  that  makes  the  home.     It  may 

be  of  any  grade,  from  a  mud  hut  or  a  bamboo 

shack  in  a  little  country  village,   to  a  brick 

house   with  black   ebony   carvings   and   green 

glazed  tile  roof  in  the  capital  of  the  empire  or 

republic.     The   little  folks  will  be   the   same. 

The  general  structure  of  the  buildings  will  be 

the  same.     The  plan  and  architecture  will  be 

the   same.     The    customs    will    be    the    same. 

The  furniture  will  be    in    general  the    same, 

though  withal  common  and  coarse  or  rich  and 

fine.     They  will  eat  the^r  food  with  the  same 

kind  of  utensils,  in  the  same  general  way,  and 

it  will  be  in  a  measure  the  same  kind  of  food. 

Their  clothes  will  be  of  the  same  pattern,  made 

in  the  same  style.     They  will  dress  their  hair 

in  the  same  way,  paint  and  powder  their  faces 

in  the  same  way,  and  make  their  shoes  and 

stockings  with  the  same  kind  of  needle  and 

thread.     And  they  will  have  done  this  for  so 

many  centuries  that  they  will  think  the  same 


INTRODUCTORY  3 

kind  of  thoughts  in  the  same  way,  until  they 
sit,  and  walk,  and  talk,  and  get  angry  and 
revile,  or  be  happy  and  sing,  in  the  same  way, 
and  it  will  all  be  different  from  the  same  things 
when  done  in  any  other  country  in  the  world. 

The  house,  then,  that  we  call  the  home  will 
be  a  one-story  building  with  three  rooms  in 
a  row.  The  door  will  enter  the  centre  of  these 
three  rooms,  which  will  be  reception  room, 
parlour,  dining  room,  hall,  and  general  living 
room.  Opposite  the  door,  against  the  wall, 
there  will  be  a  square  table  with  a  straight- 
backed  chair  on  either  side,  while  stands,  with 
chairs  beside  them,  will  occupy  the  centre  of 
each  side  wall. 

Above  the  table,  decorating  the  wall,  may 
be  four  written  scrolls,  or  a  painting  in  the 
form  of  a  hanging  scroll  (kakemono,  the 
Japanese  call  it,  though  the  Chinese  call  it 
chung  tang),  with  a  written  scroll  on  either 
side.  The  partitions  between  the  rooms,  if  it 
is  an  adobe  house  (dried  brick),  will  be  dried 
brick  walls  ;  but  if  it  is  a  brick  house  of  the 
middle  or  better  class,  the  partitions  will  be 
panelled  board  up  four  or  five  feet  from  the 
floor,  with  panelled  lattice  to  the  ceiling, 
papered  with  thin  white  paper,  and  a  small 
painting  either  in  colours,  or  black  and  white, 
in  each  of  the  panels. 

The  ceiling  will  be  of  paper,  made  in  squares 
of  about  18  x  20  inches,  finished  or  glazed 
on  one  side  with   fish-bone   or  fish-scale   dust 


4  HOME   LIFE    IN    CHINA 

(oyster-shell  dust),  and  pasted  on  a  framework 
made  of  broom-corn  stalks,  stiffened  with  a 
wooden  panelling.  The  house  will  face  south, 
if  it  is  in  the  north  of  China,  and  the  upper 
half  of  the  south  wall  will  be  lattice  windows, 
covered  with  thin  white  paper  instead  of  glass. 
This  is  for  the  purpose  of  getting  all  possible 
sunlight  into  the  room  during  the  winter, 
while  they  live  and  work  out  of  doors  during 
the  summer.  The  wealthier  homes,  where 
they  have  no  concern  about  fuel,  may  have  a 
narrow  five-foot  veranda  extending  the  whole 
length  of  the  front  side  of  the  house,  while  the 
poorer  ones  may  erect  a  mat  awning  during 
the  hot  summer  months. 

The  end  rooms  of  the  building  will  be  alike, 
from  ten  to  fifteen  feet  square,  depending 
upon  the  wealth  of  the  person.  The  south 
half  of  the  floor  in  North  China  will  be  built 
up  eighteen  inches  above  the  other  half.  This 
constitutes  the  bed.  It  is  built  of  brick  or 
dirt,  with  flues  under  the  top  layer,  and  a  fire- 
place under  the  front  with  a  place  for  a  pot 
over  the  fire.  In  the  morning,  and  in  the 
evening,  or,  if  they  can  afford  it,  all  day,  they 
build  a  fire  under  the  bed.  The  smoke,  soot, 
gas,  and  ashes  all  go  up  through  the  flues  and 
heat  the  bricks  of  the  bed,  so  that  when  you 
retire,  instead  of  having  one  hot  brick  in  your 
bed  you  go  to  bed  on  a  bed  of  hot  bricks. 
Someone  has  facetiously  called  this  "  solid 
comfort."     They    go    to    bed    on    top    of    the 


q        INTRODUCTORY  5 

stove.  The  fuel  is  usually  cornstalks,  grass, 
weeds,  old  matting,  or  anything  that  will  burn, 
or,  best  of  all,  coal  balls  made  of  anthracite 
coal  dust  mixed  with  clay,  which  supports 
complete  combustion.  It  will  be  observed 
that  the  bricks  of  this  brick  bed,  or  stove — for 
the  people  literally  sleep  on  top  of  the  stove — 
take  all  the  heat  out  of  the  fuel  so  that  none 
of  it  is  wasted  by  going  up  the  chimney — which, 
by  the  way,  is  no  part  of  the  ordinary  Chinese 
house.  Why  have  a  chimney  to  carry  off 
three-fifths  of  your  heat  ?  The  smoke  and  gas 
come  out  into  the  room.  You  open  the 
windows  and  doors  and  let  it  out,  and  you  keep 
all  the  heat  inside.  The  better  class  homes 
heat  the  houses  with  brass  or  clay  stoves  or 
braziers,  with  coal  balls  or  charcoal  for  fuel, 
which  are  lighted  outside  until  the  gas  is 
driven  off  and  then  carried  into  the  house, 
while  the  fireplace  under  the  bed  is  on  the 
veranda  instead  of  in  the  room. 

Such  is  the  simple  Chinese  home  where 
father,  mother,  and  children  dwell.  But  very 
few  Chinese  homes  are  simple.  As  soon  as  the 
boys  are  old  enough  to  marry,  as  we  shall  show 
in  a  later  chapter,  a  wife  is  found  for  each  of 
them  in  order,  and  they  bring  their  wives,  not 
to  the  parental  roof,  but  to  the  parental  en- 
closure, for  another  three-room  building,  the 
exact  counterpart  of  the  one  we  have  just 
described,  is  erected,  and  the  young  couple 
start   in   life  under   the   direction   and  super- 


6  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

intendence  of  the  boy's  parents — the  girl's 
parents-in-law.  This  continues  for  years  and 
centuries,  each  home  losing  all  of  its  girls,  who 
are  scattered  into  the  homes  of  as  many  other 
people.  In  this  way  a  single  three-room 
cottage  eventually  becomes  a  village,  which 
goes  under  the  name  of  the  Liu  village,  the 
Yang  village,  the  Wang  village,  the  Chang 
village,  or  the  village  of  the  particular  family 
who  happened  to  first  live  there.  These 
villages  of  from  one  hundred  to  four  or  five 
thousand  or  more  are  more  thickly  scattered 
over  the  habitable  portions  of  China  than 
single  farmhouses  over  Kansas,  Nebraska,  or 
Iowa. 

In  the  above  description  we  have  had  in 
mind  a  family  in  medium  circumstances,  who 
were  able  to  build  their  house  of  brick,  with 
tile  roof,  and  with  fairly  decent  furniture. 
From  them  we  may  go  in  both  directions  until 
we  come  to  the  poor  beggar  who  lives  "  from 
hand  to  mouth,"  or,  as  he  says,  "  yu  i  wan, 
ch'ih  i  wan" — "have  a  bowl,  eat  a  bowl,"  or 
to  the  sons  of  wealth  who  have  every  luxury 
that  their  intelligence  or  the  intelligence  of 
their  race  can  provide. 

From  our  point  of  view  these  are  not  many. 
For  the  floors  of  their  houses  are  of  brick. 
They  are  without  bathroom,  water,  light,  or 
heating  system,  except  such  as  we  have  de- 
scribed— no  electric  call-bells,  though  they  have 
human    call-bells,    in    the    form    of    servants, 


INTRODUCTORY  7 

always  waiting  to  do  their  bidding,  for  few 
people  in  the  world  are  better  served  than  the 
Chinese.  They  know  how  to  be  served,  and 
they  understand  how  to  be  servants.  There  is 
no  well-flushed  sewage  system,  and  the  streets, 
courts,  and  homes  are  not  clean  according  to 
our  view  of  cleanliness.  The  porous  bricks  of 
the  floors  of  ordinary  homes  contain  the 
sputum  and  fluids  of  years,  if  not  centuries, 
and  would  violate  all  our  rules  of  sanitation, 
and  contain  microbes  enough  to  depopulate  all 
Europe  and  America  in  a  single  generation. 

Their  sleeping  arrangements  are  neither  clean 
nor  comfortable.  On  top  of  the  brick  bed  is  a 
reed  mat,  and,  if  they  can  afford  it,  a  wool  or 
camel-hair  rug.  On  this,  when  they  are  about 
to  retire,  they  spread  a  ju  tzu,  or  mattress, 
about  as  thick  as  our  grandams'  wadded  com- 
forters, then  with  a  small  pillow  about  the  size 
of  a  brick,  stuffed  with  grass  seed  or  chaff, 
many  of  which  have  a  hole  in  the  centre  for  the 
ear  to  rest  in,  and  another  comforter  or  two 
to  spread  over  them,  or  to  wrap  themselves  in, 
they  lie  down  to  pleasant  dreams.  The  common 
people  use  no  sleeping  garment,  and  spread 
their  clothing  over  them  at  night  in  lieu  of  a 
sufficient  amount  of  bedding.  They  go  to  bed 
shortly  after  dark,  as  the  "  light  of  Asia," 
until  recently,  has  been  a  tallow  dip  or  a  bowl 
of  oil  with  a  rag  for  a  wick,  and  get  up  at 
daylight. 

In  the  morning  when  they  arise  the  bedding 


8  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

is  aired,  then  folded  up  and  put  away  in  chests, 
or  piled  up  on  one  end  of  the  brick  bed,  where 
it  is  ready  for  the  following  night.  They  do 
not  use  sheets  and  pillow-cases  as  we  do,  and 
hence — but  I  do  not  need  to  remind  my  readers 
of  what  their  imagination  may  do  in  a  more 
delicate  way.  But  I  must  call  their  attention 
to  the  fact  that  human  parasites — and  I  wonder 
if  any  of  my  readers  have  ever  been  able  to 
answer  the  question  why  those  things  were 
created  (I  suppose  it  was  done  to  keep  us  clean, 
for  they  only  go  where  there  is  a  reasonable 
amount  of  dirt) — human  parasites  of  every 
description  abound  wherever  man  is  found. 
And  what  better  than  a  brick  bed  as  an  in- 
cubator for  the  cimex  lectularius,  or  for  that 
matter  any  of  that  species.  Suffice  it  to  say 
that  all  these  things  take  away  from  the  com- 
forts of  home  life,  and  make  the  word  for 
home,  chia  (a  shackled  pig  under  a  roof),  seem 
significant,  and  are  sufficient  reason  for  the 
ejaculations  of  Chinese  ladies  when  visiting 
a  foreign  home,  which  are  "  kan  ching  I  ts'ui 
kan  ching ! " — "  clean  !   very  clean  !  " 

It  is  in  such  a  home  that  the  Chinese  child 
is  born  and  reared,  and  be  it  remembered  to 
the  credit  of  the  child  that  there  are  more 
than  400,000,000  of  him  without  any  scientific 
system  of  medicine,  and  in  spite  of  microbes 
and  sanitation. 


CHAPTER   II 

CHILDREN   AND   CHILD-LIFE 

THE  Chinese  word  for  child  is  made  up  of 
two  characters — that  which  means  boy, 
and  that  which  means  from  g-n  p.m. 
I  leave  my  readers  to  work  out  its  origin  ac- 
cording to  their  own  tastes  and  experiences. 
The  word  for  good  is  made  up  of  the  two  char- 
acters for  woman  and  boy — a  woman  with  a  son 
is  good.  That  this  was  the  original  meaning  of 
the  word  we  would  not  pretend  to  say,  though 
in  the  construction  of  characters  the  Chinese 
have  exercised  great  care,  and  I  know  of  no 
more  interesting  pastime  than  the  study  of 
the  structure  of  the  Chinese  ideographs. 

The  Chinese  fondness  for  children  can  be 
paralleled  only  by  that  of  the  Hebrew.  A 
woman  never  reaches  the  acme  of  womanhood 
until  she  becomes  the  mother  of  a  boy,  which 
means,  at  least,  if  it  means  no  more,  that  the 
Chinese  child  comes  to  a  home  where  it  is 
wanted,  and  will  be  appreciated.  We  are  told 
in  the  "  Four  Books  for  Girls  "  that  : 

"  Boys  and  girls  we  take  for  granted 
Will  be  found  in  every  home  ; 
And  their  study  from  their  childhood  should  be  regularly 
done, 

9 


10  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

The  direction  of  their  studies  is  their  mother's,  as  a  rule, 
For  her  son  she  calls  a  teacher  and  she  places  him  in  school, 
Where  he  writes  and  sings  short  ballads, 
Studies  how  to  be  discreet, 
Loves  his  teacher  and  rewards  him  both  with  money  and 
with  meat," 

— a  reference  to  the  old  custom  of  the  teacher 
receiving  a  part  of  his  salary  in  the  form  of 
dried  meat  which  was  brought  by  the  students. 
The  book  from  which  this  quotation  is  an 
excerpt  was  written  more  than  a  thousand 
years  ago,  and  it  is  unnecessary  to  state  that 
this  old  custom  had  fallen  into  disuse  before 
the  recent  reforms  began. 

When  a  child  is  born,  if  it  happens  to  be  a 
boy,  it  is  looked  upon  asa"  great  joy,"  and  all 
the  congratulations  that  come  to  the  parents 
come  in  the  form  of  "  ta  hsi,  ta  hsi  "  (great 
happiness,  great  happiness).  But  if  it  happens 
to  be  a  girl — as  it  is  as  frequently  as  a  boy — it 
must  be  confessed  that  if  there  is  a  surplus  of 
girls  in  the  family  before  its  arrival,  the  old 
nurse  goes  about  with  the  appearance  of  having 
stolen  it  from  somewhere,  and  if  congratulated, 
as  she  always  is,  she  will  reply  in  the  stereo- 
typed phrase,  "  Only  a  small  happiness,  '  hsiao 
hsi,'  but  even  girls  are  useful."  This  does  not 
mean  that  girls  are  not  wanted,  or  that  they 
are  not  loved.  A  family  with  a  surplus  of 
boys  is  as  anxious  for  a  daughter  as  a  similar 
family  in  Europe.  And  I  happen  to  know 
what  that  feeling  is,  for  in  my  father's  family 


A    VOUNC    MANDARIN 


CHILDREN    AND    CHILD-LIFE  11 

we  had  eight  boys  before  the  first  daughter 
came,  and  I  sympathized  with  that  little  chap 
who,  when  the  fifth  boy  came  into  their 
family,  without  a  girl,  said  as  he  stood  looking 
at  the  child  in  the  cradle  for  the  first  time — 
"  Well,  I'd  like  to  know  who's  been  praying 
for  him  !  " 

Girls  in  China,  as  in  all  the  rest  of  the  world, 
for  that  matter,  are  a  cause  of  expense  rather 
than  a  source  of  income  during  all  their  years 
at  home,  and  it  is  this  which  accounts  for  many 
of  the  customs  of  China  as  well  as  of  India. 
Where  the  struggle  of  life  is  not  for  luxuries 
but  for  sheer  necessities,  and  for  existence, 
people  may  be  pardoned  for  listening  to  the  cry 
of  an  empty  stomach,  and  hoping  for  a  hand 
to  go  with  the  mouth  that  is  born,  rather  than 
having  a  mouth  without  the  helping  hand.  In 
this  country  when  we  speak  of  people  we 
estimate  them  by  their  hands,  but  in  China  if 
you  ask  a  man  as  to  the  number  of  persons  in 
his  family  he  will  answer,  "  In  our  family  we 
have  ten  mouths." 

In  spite  of  their  poverty  the  Chinese  have 
never  approved  of  very  early  marriages  on  the 
part  of  their  daughters,  as  they  have  in  India. 
They  have  the  same  conditions,  the  same 
dangers  and  the  same  necessities  as  in  India, 
but  they  have  solved  the  problem  in  a  much 
more  masterful  way.  Their  conditions  of 
want,  need,  and  poverty  are  as  great  as  in 
India  ;  there  is  the  same  danger  of  a  girl  going 


12  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

wrong — and  it  is  this  danger,  as  well  as  their 
poverty,  that  leads  the  Hindoo  father  and 
mother  to  part  with  their  little  girl  at  such  a 
tender  age,  putting  the  responsibility  of  her 
development  and  her  virtue  on  the  man  whose 
wife  she  is  to  become,  rather  than  keeping  it 
upon  themselves.  In  China  they  have  solved 
the  problem  in  this  way :  The  prospective 
mother-in-law,  among  the  poor,  occasionally 
takes  the  child  and  brings  her  up  with  her  son 
in  her  own  family.  This  teaches  her  obedi- 
ence, enables  the  children  to  get  acquainted, 
and  puts  the  burden  of  the  girl's  support  upon 
the  family  which  is  to  reap  the  results  of  her 
labour  or  her  reproductive  capacity,  though 
they  do  not  allow  them  to  marry  until  they 
are  at  an  age  which  would  be  considered 
marriageable  in  Europe  or  America. 

During  its  babyhood  the  Chinese  child  is 
well  cared  for.  It  is  not  washed  until  it  is 
three  days  old,  the  ceremony  of  which  will  be 
found  in  another  chapter,  but  in  all  cases 
where  it  is  possible  to  do  so,  it  is  nursed  by  its 
mother.  This  might  be  the  result  of  sheer 
necessity,  if  not  from  desire,  for  the  Chinese 
use  little  milk,  and  they  have  no  artificial 
foods  of  any  kind  for  infants.  In  case  nature 
does  not  provide  the  mother  with  food,  a  wet- 
nurse  is  employed,  who,  if  she  is  allowed  to  do 
so,  will  feed  her  own  child  after  she  has  satis- 
fied that  of  her  employer. 

If  the  family  can  afford  it,  each  little  girl 


CHILDREN   AND    CHILD-LIFE  13 

has  her  own  separate  nurse,  who  remains  with 
her  as  long  as  she  lives,  acting  as  her  nurse 
when  she  is  a  child,  as  her  maid  when  she  grows 
older,  going  with  her  to  her  husband's  home 
when  she  is  married — presumably  to  keep  her 
from  becoming  lonely  in  her  new  surroundings 
— and  becoming  nurse  to  her  children,  or  at 
least  superintending  nurse,  when  they  are  born. 
These  old  nurses  are  very  important  personages 
in  a  home — next  in  importance,  though  in  a 
different  way,  to  the  mother-in-law.  The  girl 
becomes  so  dependent  upon  her  that  she  does 
not  understand  how  she  can  get  along  without 
her. 

But  there  are  other  reasons  than  poverty 
why  a  girl  child  is  less  welcome  in  a  Chinese 
home  than  a  boy.  Apart  from  the  economic, 
the  chief  reasons  for  disappointment  are  that 
a  daughter  cannot  offer  the  ancestral  sacrifice, 
she  cannot  glorify  the  family  by  official  ap- 
pointment as  the  result  of  her  literary  attain- 
ments, nor  can  she  ever  hope  to  perpetuate 
the  family  name.  In  a  condition  of  society 
where  reverence  for  the  old  has  become  ancestral 
worship,  these  considerations  assume  a  degree 
of  importance  rarely  found  among  any  other 
people. 

Before  going  to  China  I  could  not  but 
wonder,  when  I  saw  a  Chinese  or  Japanese 
doll,  why  it  was  that  they  made  such  unnatural- 
looking  things  for  babies  to  play  with.  On 
reaching  the  Orient,  the  whole  matter  was  ex- 


14  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

plained  by  the  first  Chinese  or  Japanese  baby 
I  met.     The  doll  looks  like  the  child  ! 

A  Chinese  baby  is  a  round-faced  little  piece 
of  helpless  humanity,  whose  eyes  appear  as 
if  they  were  simply  two  black  marbles  over 
which  the  skin  had  been  stretched  and  then  a 
slit  made  on  the  bias.  His  nose  is  nothing 
more  than  a  little  kopje  in  the  centre  of  his 
face,  above  a  yawning  chasm  which  requires 
constant  filling  to  secure  the  preservation  of 
law  and  order.  On  his  head  are  left  small 
tufts  of  hair  in  various  localities,  which  give  it 
the  appearance  of  the  plain  about  Peking,  on 
which  the  traveller  sees,  here  and  there,  a 
bunch  of  trees  about  a  village  or  cemetery,  the 
remainder  of  the  country  being  bare.  Whether 
he  is  clothed  or  not  depends  upon  the  season 
of  the  year.  If  he  happens  to  be  born  in  the 
spring-time,  he  has  the  pleasure  of  passing  the 
first  six  months  of  his  life  like  his  first  parents 
in  the  Garden  of  Eden,  and  is  not  ashamed. 
If  he  happens  to  die  during  the  first  six  months 
after  his  birth,  he  is  carefully  wrapped  up  in 
a  piece  of  old  matting,  if  his  parents  are  poor, 
and  tenderly  placed  on  some  street  corner, 
where  he  is  picked  up  by  the  driver  of  the  big 
black  cart,  to  which  a  gentle  but  very  big 
black  cow  is  hitched,  and  taken  outside  the 
city,  where  he  and  a  large  company  of  other 
small  unfortunates,  who  were  not  able  to  cope 
with  the  microbes  of  their  surroundings,  are 
buried  side  by  side  or  one  on  top  of  the  other 


CHILDREN    AND    CHILD-LIFE  15 

in  a  common  hole,  without  a  monument  to 
mark  his  resting-place. 

I  am  not  talking  about  something  of  which  I 
do  not  know.  I  have  seen  that  big  black  cart, 
drawn  by  the  big  black  cow,  come  down  the 
great  Hatamen  street  in  Peking,  morning  after 
morning  at  about  nine  o'clock,  and  I  have  seen 
the  man  who  went  with  the  cart  picking  up  the 
pathetic  little  packages,  and  sticking  them  into 
the  back  end  of  the  cart  as  we  used  to  put 
wood  on  the  waggon  on  the  farm.  And  one 
cold  winter's  day,  as  I  was  coming  home  from 
church  in  Peking,  a  lot  of  poor  beggars'  shacks 
had  been  built  up  against  the  city  wall.  A 
babe  had  been  born  in  one  of  them  during  the 
night,  had  been  thrown  out  on  the  sand,  and 
there  it  lay  like  a  dead  rat  frozen  in  the  sun- 
shine. On  another  occasion  when  walking  on 
top  of  the  city  wall  just  at  dusk,  I  stumbled 
upon  something,  and  on  looking  down  to  see 
what  it  was,  I  found  it  to  be  a  child's  head, 
the  body  having  been  devoured  by  the  dogs. 
Such  things  were  not  common  even  under  the 
old  regime,  but  the  cart  and  the  cow  were  of 
daily  occurrence. 

If  the  little  one  lives,  his  life  will  depend  upon 
several  very  important  considerations,  chief 
among  which  are,  whether  his  home  is  a  palace 
or  a  hovel,  whether  he  is  a  boy  or  a  girl,  what 
kind  of  children  have  preceded  him,  and  what 
kind  of  parents  he  has  succeeded  in  securing. 
If,  as  we  have  already  indicated,  he  is  a  boy, 


16  HOME    LIFE  IN    CHINA 

and  the  majority  of  his  predecessors  are  boys, 
well,  "  can  do,"  the  parents  and  nurse  will  say, 
but  if  he  happens  to  be  a  girl,  he  may  be  de- 
cidedly superfluous. 

The  presumption  is  that  a  Chinese  child  is 
born  with  the  same  general  disposition  as  the 
European  or  American  child.  And  I  presume 
he  is.  But  he  certainly  does  not  grow  up 
with  it.  Early  in  life  he  begins  to  develop  a 
disposition  which  is  peculiar  to  the  Chinese 
child.  He  is  T'ao  ch'i.  That  almost  means 
mischievous  ;  it  almost  means  troublesome — 
a  little  Tartar — but  it  means  exactly  T'ao 
ch'i. 

A  T'ao  ch'i  child  that  spends  a  good  deal  of 
its  time  with  a  nurse  may  become  a  little  tyrant. 
I  have  known  cases  in  which  father,  mother, 
uncle,  aunts,  and  grandparents  were  all  made 
to  do  his  bidding.  In  case  any  of  them  seemed 
to  be  recalcitrant,  the  little  dear  would  lie 
down  on  his  baby  back  on  the  dusty  ground  and 
kick  and  scream,  and  literally  raise  the  dust, 
until  the  refractory  parent  or  nurse  had  re- 
pented and  succumbed,  when  he  would  get  up 
and  good-naturedly  go  about  his  play  and 
allow  them  to  go  about  their  business. 

This  is  a  peculiarly  Chinese  baby  trick  or 
disposition — at  least  I  have  never  seen  it  in 
any  other  country,  though  I  once  found  my 
own  little  boy  at  about  two  or  three  years  of 
age  try  it  on  his  nurse.  I  saw  him  !  I  ran  to 
him,  picked  him  up,  put  him  across  my  knee, 


CHILDREN   AND    CHILD-LIFE  17 

gave  him  three  quick,  sharp  spanks,  that  sur- 
prised, without  hurting  him  very  much,  then 
I  sat  him  up  straight,  and  emphasizing  it  with 
my  index  finger,  I  said  : 

"  My  son,  Chinese  babies  do  that,  but 
American  babies  never  do.  Now  you  must 
never  do  that  again,  will  you  ?  " 

He  promised  he  would  not.  Then  I  turned 
to  the  nurse — an  absolutely  reliable  Chinese 
woman — and  said  to  her,  that  the  child  might 
hear  it : 

"  Hsin  Nai-nai,  if  my  little  boy  ever  does 
that  again  you  will  tell  me,  won't  you  ?  " 

She  promised  she  would,  and  it  never  oc- 
curred again. 

In  general  a  baby  girl  receives  the  same 
tender  care  as  a  boy.  Her  head  is  shaved 
when  a  month  old,  all  except  the  "  soft  spot," 
and  some  part  of  the  head  is  shaved  every  week 
or  ten  days  until  the  age  of  puberty.  One  of 
the  favourite  methods  of  decorating  the  head 
with  tufts  of  hair  is  to  leave  a  bunch  on  top 
and  another  on  the  back  of  the  neck.  But  the 
favourite  decoration  is  obtained  by  shaving 
a  round  spot  on  the  scalp,  and  then  in  a  like 
manner  shaving  all  the  rest  of  the  head  up  to 
within  an  inch  of  this,  leaving  a  circular  tuft  of 
hair  around  the  scalp,  which  grows  out  like  a 
dark  halo.  When  it  has  grown  to  the  length  of 
three  or  four  inches  it  is  braided  into  small 
queues  with  red  cords,  which  gives  him  a 
charming,  not  to  say  cunning  appearance. 


18  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

As  they  grow  older  only  the  front  of  the  head 
was  shaven  under  the  old  Manchu  regime,  the 
remainder  being  allowed  to  grow.  This  was 
braided  into  a  single  queue  on  boys  and  girls 
alike,  and  was  to  the  Chinese  boy  what  the 
first  pair  of  trousers  or  a  pair  of  red-top  boots 
was  to  his  antipodal  neighbour.  His  first  baby 
shoes  are  often  made  in  the  shape  of  a  pig,  and 
are  called  piggy  shoes,  his  mittens  in  the  form 
of  a  tiger's  head,  and  the  bonnet  which  he 
wears  in  winter  in  the  form  of  a  cock  or  a 
phcenix  or  some  other  bird,  while  golden 
dragons  decorate  his  coat  and  vest. 

The  little  boy  of  the  middle  or  better  class, 
or  even  the  poorer  class  if  they  can  afford  it, 
is  dressed  exactly  like  the  man,  while  the  little 
girl  is  dressed  like  her  mother.  The  one  does 
not  have  to  go  through  the  period  of  stockings 
and  knickerbockers,  nor  the  other  through 
short  skirts  ;  the  difference  between  the  child 
and  the  youth  or  the  man  is  indicated  by  the 
hair  rather  than  the  clothing. 

The  clothes  of  boys  and  girls  as  little  children 
are  about  the  same — shoes,  made  of  cloth  with 
thick  soles  ;  stockings,  made  of  white  muslin, 
not  knit ;  trousers,  wide  and  baggy,  with  a 
wide  white  band  about  the  top,  where  they  are 
held  about  the  waist  with  a  girdle,  and  with 
no  openings  except  at  the  top  and  the  bottom 
of  the  legs.  They  step  into  them  much  as  one 
would  step  into  a  bag,  girdle  them  about  the 
waist,   and  bind  them   about  the  ankle  with 


CHILDREN   AND    CHILD-LIFE  19 

narrow  ties  called  ankle-bands.  These  are  to 
the  Chinese  what  a  cravat  is  to  a  European  or 
American  boy.  If  he  has  a  very  pretty  pair 
of  ankle-bands,  he  will  bind  them  in  such  a  way 
as  to  have  them  come  loose  often,  so  as  to 
attract  the  attention  of  his  associates.  His 
coat  is  a  long  smock  made  of  silk,  satin,  or 
common  blue  muslin,  which  reaches  to  his 
shoes,  while  his  sister's  reaches  only  to  her 
ankles  or  calves,  the  long  straight  lines  of 
which  are  broken  by  a  short  coat,  called  a 
horse-coat,  ma  kua,  or  a  vest,  which  reach  only 
to  the  hips.  The  chief  difference  between  the 
clothes  of  the  boys  and  the  girls  is  in  decora- 
tion. The  little  girl,  like  her  sister  all  over 
the  world,  decorates  herself  very  much  more 
elaborately  than  her  brother. 

One   of   the   most   interesting   things   about 
the  life  of  a  child  in  China  is  the  way  it  learns 
to  talk.     To  learn  to  speak  the  Chinese  lan- 
guage is,   I   think,  no  more  difficult  than  to 
learn   any   other   language.     Each   word   is   a 
single  syllable.     It  has  no  declension  of  nouns 
or  pronouns,  no  conjugation  of  verbs,  no  com- 
jparison   of  adjectives.     But  each  sound  may 
;  be  pronounced  with  any  one  of  four  or  more 
I  different   inflections,   which   are   very   difficult 
for  the  foreigner  to  acquire.     The  nurse  is  the 
first  teacher  of  the  child.     She  goes  about  with 
the  little  one,  saying  over  and  over  again,  until 
one  would  think  the  child  would  tire  of  it  : 
"  This  is  a  flower,"  and  the  child  repeats,  "  Yis 

i 
! 


20  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

is  a  fower  "  ;  "  This  is  a  stone,"  "  Yis  is  a 
tone,"  &c.  &c. 

My  little  boy  was  asked  to  write  a  letter 
for  a  magazine  in  New  York.  He  wrote  the 
following  : 

"  My  dear  Circle, — My  home  is  in  Peking. 
I  am  nine  years  old.  I  can  talk  Chinese.  I 
learned  it  before  I  did  English.  It's  dead  easy. 
You  talk  it  just  the  same  as  you  do  English, 
only  the  words  are  different  " — 

which  will  give  some  idea  as  to  what  children 
think  of  the  relative  difficulties  of  the  two 
languages. 

The  most  attractive  thing  about  the  early 
life  of  a  Chinese  child,  as  I  think,  is  the  nursery 
rhymes.  I  gathered  up  six  hundred  of  these 
ditties  in  two  of  the  eighteen  provinces,  trans- 
lated one  hundred  and  fifty  of  them  into 
English,  took  the  children  to  the  photographers, 
posed  them  and  photographed  them,  and 
printed  them  in  a  Chinese  Mother  Goose  book, 
the  popularity  of  which  is  the  best  testimony 
of  their  interest.  Every  good  old  nurse  is  full 
of  these  rhymes,  and  can  reel  them  off  to  the 
children  as  rapidly  as  an  English  nurse  can  our 
own  Mother  Goose. 

I  caught  an  old  nurse  one  day  repeating  this 
rhyme  to  the  little  one  she  was  caring  for  : 

"  He  climbed  up  the  candlestick, 
The  little  mousey  brown, 


CHILDREN    AND    CHILD-LIFE  21 

To  steal  and  eat  tallow, 

And  he  couldn't  get  down  ; 
He  called  for  his  grandma, 

But  his  grandma  was  in  town. 
So  he  doubled  up  into  a  wheel 

And  rolled  himself  down." 


Now  that  rhyme  contains  all  the  character- 
istics of  "  Old  Mother  Hubbard."     The  reader 
will  remember  that  that  old  dame  went  to  the 
cupboard   to  get   a  bone   for   her   dog.      She 
found  it  bare,  and  "so  the  poor  dog  had  none." 
The   person   who   made   that   rhyme   did   not 
understand  the  child,  for  no  normal  child  will 
allow  its  pet  dog,  even  in  imagination,  to  be 
without  a  bone  all  through  its  existence,  and 
so  it  said,  "  then  what  ?  "     Someone  else  who 
did  not  understand  the  child  went  to  the  baker's 
!  to  buy  him  some   bread,  but   found   the  dog 
|  dead  on  his  or  her  return.     That  did  not  satisfy 
j  the  child,  nor  did  anything  until  both  the  dog 
I  and  the  old  dame  were  out  of  their  dilemma. 

Notice  the  little  mouse.  He  is  in  trouble 
trying  to  steal  and  eat  tallow.  In  his  distress 
he  calls  for  the  one  person  in  the  world  who 
would  be  likely  to  help  him  down — his  grand- 
mother. She  would  not  come,  and  in  order 
I  to  satisfy  the  child  someone  had  to  make  him 
double  up  into  a  wheel  and  roll  himself  down. 
That  rhyme  is  as  widely  known  throughout 
China  as  "  Jack  and  Jill  "  is  among  English- 
i  speaking  children. 

Now,  the  fingers  and  toes,  the  eyes,  ears,  and 


22  HOME    LIFE    IN     CHINA 

nose  are  the  first  things  that  interest  a  child. 
I  have  therefore  found  no  less  than  three 
rhymes  which  correspond  to  our  "  Little  pig 
went  to  market."     Here  is  one  of  them  : 

"  This  one's  old, 

This  one's  young, 
This  one  has  no  meat, 

This  one's  gone 

To  buy  some  hay, 
And  this  one's  on  the  street." 

The  same  is  true  of  the  features — the  eyes, 
ears,  and  nose,  ending  with  the  mouth,  or  the 
tickling  of  the  neck.  Who  does  not  know  the 
"  Forehead  bender,"  or  the  "  Knock  at  the 
door "  rhymes,  in  our  own  language  ?  One 
day  I  caught  an  old  nurse,  who  protested  that 
she  did  not  know  any  of  these  rhymes,  with 
my  little  girl  on  her  knee,  and  as  she  tapped 
her  on  the  forehead  and  the  other  features  she 
repeated,  in  Chinese,  of  course  : 

"  Knock  at  the  door, 

See  a  face, 
Smell  an  odour, 

Hear  a  voice, 
Eat  your  dinner, 

Pull  your  chin,  or 
Ke  chih,  Ke  chih." 

Lest  this  chapter  be  out  of  proportion  to 
the  other  chapters  of  the  book,  I  will  reserve 
what  I  have  to  say  on  other  phases  of  child- 
life  for  the  following  chapter.  Those  who  wish  to 
know  more  about  their  nursery  rhymes  will  find 
them  in  my  "  Chinese  Mother  Goose  Rhymes." 


CHAPTER   III 

SCHOOL   LIFE   OF  CHILDREN 

THE  school  for  the  Chinese  child  under  the 
old  regime  was  for  the  most  part  in  the 
home.  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that 
girls  were  not  taught  ;  the  fact  is  that  they 
were  taught,  but  not  the  same  as  boys.  Up  to 
the  age  of  five  or  six  the  boy  and  the  girl  grow 
up  together,  and  "  she  participated  in  all  the 
privileges  of  her  brother,  excepting  those  which 
would  tend  to  make  her  a  '  Tomboy.'  "  At  the 
age  of  five  or  six,  however,  the  line  of  demarca- 
tion is  drawn  between  the  girl  and  the  boy, 
and  the  mother  is  instructed  in  the  "  Primer 
for  Girls,"  that  : 

"  When  he  grows  to  years  of  boyhood, 
Then  a  teacher  call  at  once, 
Who  will  books  and  manners  teach  him,  that  he  may  not 

be  a  dunce. 
Lazy  habits  in  his  study  will  good  people  all  annoy, 
And  his  indolence  the  prospects  of  his  future  life  destroy. 

"  For  your  daughter  in  her  girlhood 
To  learn  fancy-work  is  best, 
Ne'er  allow  her  to  be  idle, — lolling  to  the  east  or  west. 
If  in  youth  you  do  not  teach  her,  when  full-grown  'twill 

be  too  late ; 
When  she  marries  it  will  bring  her  only  shame,   disgrace, 

and  hate." 

23 


24  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

In  this  chapter  I  shall  attempt  to  describe 
the  old  style  of  education  for  the  Chinese  boy, 
and  the  same  for  the  girl,  after  which  I  shall 
try  to  picture  the  changes  that  have  come 
about  during  the  past  dozen  years. 

As  indicated  by  the  above  quotation,  families 
which  were  able  to  do  so  called  a  teacher  to 
their  home,  and  while  theoretically  only  the 
boys  were  allowed  to  study  with  him,  practically, 
in  very  many  cases,  the  girls  were  put  into 
school  with  the  boys  until  they  reached  the 
years  of  eight  or  nine  or  more.  In  this  way 
they  would  begin  to  recognize  characters  (jen 
tzu),  and  would  read  the  first  three  primers, 
namely  :  "  The  Trimetrical  Primer,"  "  The  Hun- 
dred Surnames,"  and  the  "  Thousand  Character 
Classic."  The  first  of  these  is  a  touch  of  almost 
everything  he  will  have  to  learn  throughout  his 
life.     He  is  told  in  the  first  sentence  that : 

"  Men  one  and  all  in  infancy  are  virtuous  at  heart, 
Their  moral  tendencies  the  same,  their  practice  wide 
apart  " — 

a  sentence,  the  remotest  meaning  of  which  he 
does  not  comprehend.  After  this  tough  intro- 
duction, instances  are  adduced  of  youthful 
learning  and  precocity,  all  tending  to  show  the 
necessity  of  education.  Categories  of  the 
numerical  series,  of  which  the  Chinese  are  so 
fond,  follow,  such  for  example  as  the  three 
powers — heaven,  earth,  and  man ;  the  five 
cardinal  virtues ;   and  six  kinds  of  grain.     A 


1 


HK    WARRIORS 


SCHOOL    LIFE    OF    CHILDREN  25 

list  of  books  to  be  learned  is  next  enumerated, 
followed  by  an  epitome  of  Chinese  history  in 
the  tersest  possible  form,  and  the  book  ends 
with  what,  if  it  were  only  in  an  intelligible  form 
for  the  boy,  would  be  the  most  interesting  part 
of  all,  viz.  instances  of  the  pursuit  of  knowledge 
under  difficulties,  which  are  used  to  goad  the 
future  aspirant  for  literary  fame  on  in  the 
course. 

The  stories  are  after  the  style  of  the  follow- 
ing :  He  is  told  how  the  great  historian  and 
statesman,  Ssu-ma  Kuang,  used  a  round  wooden 
pillow  when  he  slept,  so  that  when  he  became 
restless  and  tossed  about,  he  would  roll  off  his 
pillow,  wake  up,  and  settle  down  to  study. 
Another  tied  his  hair  to  the  rafts  above  him, 
so  that  when  he  nodded  over  his  work  the  jerk 
would  arouse  him,  and  he  would  continue 
diligently  at  his  books.  Other  stories  told  to 
children  I  have  put  into  verses  as  follows  : 

Sun  K'ang  was  a  diligent  boy, 

As  almost  all  of  you  know ; 
For  he  studied  at  night  by  the  pale  moonlight, 

Reflected  from  the  snow. 

Little  Ch'e  Wu 

Was  diligent  too  ; 
For  he  studied  at  night, 

By  a  fire-fly's  light, 
As  diligent  boys  should  do. 

K'ang  Hung's  house  was  a  house  of  clay, 
He  studied  hard  throughout  the  day, 


2C  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

And  made  a  hole  through  his  wall  at  night, 
To  study  by  his  neighbour's  light. 

Sitting  on  a  rock,  the  student, 

Who  assistance  will  not  ask, 
Takes  advantage  of  the  moonlight 

To  prepare  to-morrow's  task. 

Others  pricked  themselves  with  pins  to 
compel  themselves  to  keep  awake.  Still  others 
are  said  to  have  studied  by  the  light  of  a  glow- 
worm. They  have  a  saying  that,  "  When  you 
turn  over  in  bed  it  is  time  to  turn  out."  Of 
Chu  Fu-tzu,  the  greatest  of  the  Confucian  com- 
mentators, it  is  recorded  that,  if  he  awoke 
before  daylight  and  was  without  a  light,  he 
sat  up  in  bed  and  meditated  until  morning, 
and  when  daylight  came  he  recorded  his 
thoughts  upon  paper. 

Stories  are  told  of  mothers  who  made  their 
sons  eat  pills  made  of  bear's  gall,  as  a  lesson  on 
the  bitterness  of  poverty  ;  of  those  who  cut  in 
twain  the  web  they  were  weaving  to  illustrate 
the  injuries  of  playing  truant.  When  Con- 
fucius said  that  he  so  loved  his  books  that  he 
forgot  that  he  was  growing  old,  he  expressed 
a  sentiment  that  has  found  lodgment  in  the 
hearts  of  many  of  the  youth  of  the  Flowery 
Kingdom. 

Chinese  history  is  full  of  the  names  of  men 
who,  by  energy,  industry,  and  ambition,  raised 
themselves  from  positions  of  servitude  to  places 
of  power.     Liu  Pei  was  a  seller  of  straw  sandals 


SCHOOL    LIFE    OF   CHILDREN  27 

when  a  boy,  and  one  of  the  rulers  of  the  Three 
Kingdoms  when  a  man.  The  builder  of  the 
Great  Wall  of  China  was  the  son  of  a  secretary, 
but  he  overthrew  Chinese  feudalism,  united 
the  warring  states,  and  left  China  the  greatest 
of  Oriental  empires,  two  centuries  before  the 
Christian  era.  Shun,  the  second  of  the  early 
Sages,  was  first  a  farmer,  then  a  king,  but 
children  are  told  that  while  a  farmer  or  labourer, 
he  did  all  his  work  so  perfectly  that  not  a  man 
who  laboured  with  him  would  turn  out  a  bad 
piece  of  work  while  he  was  present.  He  is  the 
first  of  the  twenty-four  "  Patterns "  that 
follow. 

In  addition  to  the  above  stories  they  have 
twenty-four  other  incidents  of  as  many  re- 
markable persons,  about  whom  children  are 
told,  and  whom  they  are  expected  to  imitate. 
These  are  : 

The  Twenty-four  Patterns  of  Filial  Piety 

i.  Shun. — Shun  was  the  second  of  the  great 
Sages  who  lived  2317-2208  B.C.  His  mother 
died  when  he  was  a  child,  and  his  father, 
marrying  again  and  preferring  his  stepbrother 
to  himself,  repeatedly  tried  to  put  him  to 
death  by  setting  fire  to  his  house,  making  him 
descend  a  deep  well  and  then  filling  it  up,  but 
in  each  case  he  was  miraculously  preserved, 
and  notwithstanding  it  all,  he  never  lessened 
his  regard  for  his  father,  his  stepmother,  nor 
his  stepbrother. 


28  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

2.  Wen  Ti. — The  son  of  the  founder  of  the 
Han  dynasty,  180  B.C.  During  his  youth  his 
mother  was  ill  for  three  years,  all  which  time 
he  waited  on  her  with  such  patience  and 
diligence  that  he  never  even  left  the  room  nor 
changed  his  clothing. 

3.  Tseng  Ts'an. — The  second  of  the  disciples 
of  Confucius  (505-437  B.C.).  Author  of  the 
"  Great  Learning  "  and  the  "  Canon  of  Filial 
Piety."  One  day  when  following  the  master  he 
suddenly  felt  his  heart  throb,  and  returned 
home.  "Ah,"  said  his  mother,  "  I  was  longing 
to  see  you,  and  just  bit  my  finger."  One  day 
while  hoeing  melons  he  accidentally  cut  the  root 
of  one,  whereupon  his  father  beat  him  until  he 
fainted.  Confucius  blamed  him  for  not  having 
gotten  away,  "  for  by  quietly  submitting  to 
such  a  beating  you  might  have  been  killed,  and 
what  unfilial  conduct  that  would  have  been  !  ' 
But  after  the  death  of  his  father  he  could  never 
eat  a  date-plum,  because  that  was  his  father's 
favourite  fruit.  He  spared  the  life  of  a  wounded 
crane  and  cured  its  injuries,  and  after  the  bird 
had  flown  away  it  returned  with  its  mate,  each 
bearing  a  pearl  in  its  bill. 

4.  Min  Sun. — Another  disciple  of  Confucius. 
His  mother  died  when  he  was  a  child,  and  his 
father  married  again.  His  stepmother  treated 
him  badly,  clothing  him  only  in  garments 
made  from  rushes,  while  her  own  two  sons 
were  warmly  clad.  One  day  he  was  driving 
his  father  in  a  carriage,  and  was  so  cold  that  the 


SCHOOL    LIFE    OF   CHILDREN  29 

reins  fell  from  his  hands.  His  father,  discover- 
ing the  reason,  threatened  to  divorce  his  wife. 
"  No,  father,"  said  the  boy,  "  it  were  better 
that  one  boy  should  be  cold  than  that  three 
should  be  motherless,"  and  he  thus  won  her 
affection. 

5.  Chung  Yii,  better  known  as  Tzu  Lu. — 
The  first  in  history  to  give  utterance  to  the 
negative  form  of  the  "  Golden  Rule,"  so  often 
attributed  to  Confucius.  It  was  probably  a 
proverb  at  that  time.  He  was  a  favourite 
disciple  of  Confucius,  entered  official  life,  and 
became  wealthy.  While  a  poor  boy  he  was 
accustomed  to  carry  rice  from  a  distance  for 
the  support  of  his  parents,  while  he  lived  on 
bishopwort  himself.  After  the  death  of  his 
parents,  while  he  "  sat  on  double  cushions  and 
ate  from  an  array  of  dishes,"  he  sighed,  "  Oh 
for  the  days  of  rice-carrying  and  bishopwort." 
He  was  the  Peter  of  the  disciples — rash  to  a 
fault.  But  the  master  said,  "  If  I  were  to  sail 
the  ocean  on  a  raft  I  should  want  Tzu  Lu  in 
charge." 

6.  Lao  Lai  Tzu. — It  is  said  that  at  the  age  of 
seventy  he  would  dress  himself  up  in  fantastic 
garb,  and  cut  capers  before  his  parents,  who  were 
in  their  childish  dotage,  to  make  them  forget 
that  they  were  old,  without  any  thought  of 
his  own  infirmity.  Chuang  Tzu  tells  us  that 
he  once  lectured  Confucius  on  the  right  conduct 
of  life. 

7.  Yen   Tzu  dressed  himself  in   deer's  skin 


30  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

and  waited  in  the  forest  till  he  could  mingle 
with  a  herd  of  deer  and  get  milk  of  a  doe  for 
which  his  parents  had  expressed  a  longing. 

8.  Tung  Yung. — When  his  father  died,  he 
borrowed  10,000  cash  to  pay  the  funeral  ex- 
penses, agreeing  to  become  a  bondsman  if  he 
failed  to  repay  the  debt.  Returning  home 
after  the  funeral  he  met  a  beautiful  damsel,  who 
asked  him  to  marry  her.  They  first  went  to 
the  creditor  to  arrange  about  the  debt.  The 
latter  demanded  300  pieces  of  silk,  whereupon 
the  young  lady  set  to  work,  and  within  a  month 
had  ready  the  amount.  She  then  turned  to 
Tung  Yung  and  said  :  "I  am  the  Spinning 
Damsel  (a  Lyra).  God  sent  me  to  help  you  as 
a  reward  for  your  kindness  to  your  parents." 

The  story  of  the  spinning  girl  will  be  found  in 
another  part  of  this  book. 

9.  Chiang  Ko. — The  most  important  thing 
about  Chiang  Ko  is  that  at  six  he  was  good  at 
composition,  at  sixteen  he  rescued  his  mother 
from  a  band  of  robbers,  and  rose  to  a  high 
position  in  the  service  of  his  country  about 
525  A.D. 

10.  Huang  Hsiang. — He  lost  his  mother  when 
a  child  and  became  a  perfect  skeleton  from 
excessive  grief.  He  then  devoted  himself  to 
his  father,  in  summer  fanning  his  pillow  to 
make  it  cool,  and  in  winter  lying  down  in  his 
couch  before  he  retired  to  make  it  warm.  He 
then  entered  upon  an  official  career  and  rose 
to   the   post    of   Governor,    and   distinguished 


SCHOOL    LIFE    OF    CHILDREN  31 

himself  by  his  liberality  at  a  time  of  flood  and 
famine. 

ii.  Wang  Hsiang. — His  stepmother  was  very 
fond  of  fresh  fish.  The  pond  being  frozen  he 
lay  naked  on  the  ice  until  his  body  melted  it, 
when  out  jumped  a  pair  of  carp,  which  he 
carried  home  in  triumph.  And  to  this  day, 
whenever  that  pond  freezes,  the  outline  of  the 
body  of  a  man  can  easily  be  discerned  on  the 
ice.     (185-269  a.d.) 

12.  Wu  Meng. — In  summer  he  would  not 
drive  the  mosquitoes  away  from  himself,  but  let 
them  feed  until  they  were  full,  lest  they  go  and 
bite  his  parents.     (Fourth  and  fifth  cent,  a.d.) 

13.  Kuo  Chii. — In  the  second  century  A.D. 
Kuo  Chii's  family  consisted  of  himself,  his 
mother,  his  wife,  and  his  little  boy.  They  were 
so  poor  they  did  not  have  food  enough  for  them 
all.  Kuo  therefore  said  to  his  wife  :  "  The 
boy  eats  so  much  that  there  is  not  food  enough 
for  mother.  Now  we  can  have  other  sons  but 
we  cannot  have  another  mother/'  They  there- 
fore agreed  to  bury  the  child.  But  when 
digging  the  hole  they  came  upon  an  ingot  of 
gold  inscribed  with  these  words  :  "  God's  gift 
to  Kuo  Chii.  Let  no  official  deprive  him  of  it, 
and  let  no  one  else  take  it." 

14.  Yang  Hsiang. — When  only  fourteen  years 
of  age  his  father  was  attacked  by  a  tiger,  where- 
upon he  threw  himself  upon  the  beast,  and  by 
the  sacrifice  of  himself  was  enabled  to  save  his 
father's  life.     (First  century  a.d.) 


32  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

15.  Ts'ai  Shun. — He  was  once  called  from 
the  forest  where  he  was  gathering  firewood  by 
his  mother  biting  her  finger,  at  which  he  felt  a 
pain  in  his  heart.  During  a  famine  he  nourished 
her  with  wild  berries  (first  century),  giving  her 
the  ripe  ones  and  living  on  the  unripe  ones 
himself.  When  mourning  by  her  coffin  he 
was  told  that  the  village  was  on  fire.  He 
refused  to  move,  and  their  house  remained  un- 
harmed, though  the  others  were  consumed. 
Because  his  mother  feared  thunder,  he  sat  by 
her  grave  whenever  there  was  a  storm,  saying, 
"  Fear  not,  mother,  I  am  here."  He  refused 
official  position  on  the  ground  that  he  could 
not  leave  his  mother's  tomb. 

16.  Lu  Hsu  (first  century  a.d.)  was  an 
official  who  attracted  attention  during  a  famine 
by  distributing  food  only  among  persons  of  a 
different  surname  from  his  own,  and  who  could 
not  therefore  be  members  of  his  own  family. 
He  was  unjustly  accused  of  rebellion  and  thrown 
into  prison.  While  there  his  mother  brought 
him  some  food  which  when  he  saw  he  recognized 
as  coming  from  her  hand  by  the  mincing  of  the 
meat  and  onions,  though  he  had  not  seen  her, 
and  burst  into  tears.  When  this  was  reported 
to  the  Emperor,  he  was  set  at  liberty. 

17.  Wang  P'ou  (third  century  a.d.). — His 
father  was  beheaded  for  remonstrating  with  his 
prince  and  attributing  to  him  a  defeat  from  the 
enemy.  Wang  P'ou  from  that  time  lived  in 
retirement,  taking  pupils  ;    and  it  is  said  he 


SCHOOL    LIFE    OF    CHILDREN  33 

leaned  against  a  pine  tree  near  his  father's 
grave  and  wept  till  his  tears  caused  the  tree  to 
decay.  His  mother,  being  afraid  of  thunder, 
like  Ts'ai  Shun  he  would  sit  beside  her  grave 
and  say,  "  I  am  near  you."  On  reading  the 
Odes  he  would  weep  whenever  he  came  to  the 
passage,  "  O  my  father  and  my  mother,  how 
toilsome  was  my  birth  for  you."  His  pupils, 
therefore,  always  skipped  that  particular  ode 
lest  they  awaken  his  grief. 

18.  Meng  Tsung  (third  century  a.d.)  would 
never  taste  anything  just  when  it  came  into 
season  until  after  he  had  offered  some  to  his 
mother.  His  mother,  expressing  a  desire  for 
bamboo  shoots  before  the  season  had  arrived, 
he  went  to  the  grove  bewailing  the  fact  that  he 
could  not  obtain  them,  when  at  once  the  bamboos 
began  to  put  forth  their  shoots  all  about  him. 

19.  Yu  Ch'ien-lou  (fifth  and  sixth  centuries 
a.d.)  gave  up  his  office  ten  days  after  his  ap- 
pointment that  he  might  return  home  and  care 
for  his  sick  father.  He  used  to  turn  daily 
toward  the  north  and  pray  that  he  might  be 
allowed  to  die  in  his  father's  stead,  after  whose 
death  he  rose  to  high  rank  in  the  service  of 
the  Government. 

20.  Ts'ui  Shih,  the  only  female  among  the 
twenty-four  patterns  of  filial  piety.  It  is  said 
that  when  her  mother-in-law  was  old  and 
toothless  she  nourished  her  with  milk  from 
her  own  breast,  by  which  means  she  was  able 
to  keep  her  alive. 

3 


34  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

21.  Chiang  Shih  (first  century  a.d.)  is  rivalled 
in  his  filial  piety  only  by  his  wife.  The  latter 
walked  several  miles  every  day  to  get  river 
water  for  her  mother-in-law  because  she  pre- 
ferred it  to  that  of  their  well.  She  also  made 
a  similar  effort  to  provide  the  old  lady  with 
minced  fish.  As  a  reward  for  her  filial  conduct 
a  spring  burst  forth  near  their  home  in  which 
a  pair  of  carp  was  found  daily.  When  the 
Red-Eyebrow  Rebel,  Fan  Ch'ung,  learned  of 
their  filial  piety  he  bade  his  soldiers  spare 
their  village. 

22.  Ting  Lan  (first  century  a.d.)  had  a  carved 
effigy  made  to  represent  his  mother  after  her 
death,  and  served  it  as  he  had  his  parent.  One 
day  a  neighbour  came  in  to  borrow  something, 
but  when  the  figure  was  consulted  it  shook  its 
head,  whereupon  the  neighbour  struck  it  on 
the  face.  When  Ting  Lan  came  in  he  saw  an 
expression  of  grief  on  the  face  of  the  image, 
and  on  hearing  of  the  incident  he  went  and 
gave  his  neighbour  a  sound  thrashing.  Being 
sued  for  assault,  the  officers  came  to  arrest 
him,  but  seeing  tears  trickling  down  the 
figure's  face,  he  was  not  only  acquitted,  but  the 
Emperor  sent  an  order  for  his  portrait. 

23.  Chu  Shou-ch'ang  (1031-1102  a.d.)  was 
the  son  of  a  concubine,  who  gave  birth  to 
him  shortly  after  the  father's  departure  for 
his  post  as  Governor  of  the  Metropolitan 
District.  As  a  child  he  was  sent  to  his  father's 
home  at  the  capital,  and  heard  no  more  of  his 


SCHOOL    LIFE    OF    CHILDREN  35 

mother.  Later  he  entered  official  life,  where 
he  distinguished  himself  by  his  energetic  ad- 
ministration. A  longing  to  know  his  mother 
overtook  him,  but  for  a  long  time  all  his  efforts 
to  find  her  proved  unavailing.  He  tried 
various  Buddhist  methods,  such  as  cauter- 
izing his  back,  burning  his  scalp,  and  writing 
out  sutras  with  his  blood.  Finally  he  gave  up 
his  office  and  set  out  in  search  of  her,  and 
his  efforts  were  crowned  with  success  after  a 
separation  of  fifty  years.  It  is  gratifying  to 
know  that  he  was  restored  to  office  and  be- 
came a  Minister  of  State. 

24.  Huang  T'ing-chien  (1060-1110  a.d.)  used 
to  say  that  if  a  man  were  commonplace  there 
was  no  hope  for  him.  Those  who  were  not 
commonplace,  under  ordinary  circumstances, 
behaved  like  ordinary  men  ;  but  when  some 
crisis  came,  their  real  value  would  appear. 
He  was  greatly  distinguished  as  a  poet  and 
calligraphist,  and  was  ranked  as  one  of  the 
four  great  scholars  of  the  empire,  though  his 
official  career  was  somewhat  chequered  as  a 
result  of  his  fearless  tongue.  When  his  mother 
was  ill  he  watched  for  a  whole  year  without 
leaving  her  bedside,  or  even  taking  off  his 
clothes,  and  at  her  death  he  mourned  so 
bitterly  that  he  nearly  lost  his  life. 

Now  it  may  seem  to  some  of  my  readers 
that  I  have  given  more  space  to  these  "  twenty- 
four   patterns   of  filial   piety  "   than   they   de- 


36  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

serve.  To  such  I  would  say  that  I  would 
really  like  to  add  all  the  instances  of  her 
"  Second  Twenty-four  Examples  of  Filial 
Piety,"  for  she  has  a  "  Second  Twenty-four," 
and  it  is  such  stories  as  these  that  have  gone 
far  toward  making  the  Chinese  people  what 
they  are.  In  the  West,  society  is  based  largely 
upon  the  young,  and  the  parents  are  expected 
to  care  for  the  children.  In  China,  on  the 
other  hand,  society,  under  the  old  regime,  was 
based  upon  the  old,  and  the  business  of  the 
children  was  to  serve  their  parents.  Which  of 
the  two  is  the  better  social  system  I  shall  not 
undertake  to  say.  That  based  upon  the  old 
is  conservative,  that  based  upon  the  new 
is  progressive.  It  may  be  that  China  overdid 
the  matter  in  her  control  of  the  young,  and 
it  may  also  be  that  we  are  overdoing  the  matter 
in  the  liberty — not  to  say  license — that  we, 
especially  in  America,  are  giving  to  boys  and 
girls.  But  however  this  may  be,  it  still  re- 
mains a  fact,  that  the  results  which  China  has 
secured  have  been  obtained  largely  by  such 
stories  as  we  have  given,  and  others  which  we 
shall  give  in  other  chapters.  And  so  I  say 
the  above  examples  will  give  some  idea  of  the 
stories  told  to  children,  and  take  the  place  in 
child-lore  that  the  hatchet  and  the  cherry-tree, 
or  the  figuring  on  the  barn  door  of  Newton, 
or  writing  in  the  sand  of  Spencer,  take  with 
European  and  American  children.  Another 
primer,  "  The  Rules  of  Behaviour  for  Children," 


SCHOOL    LIFE    OF    CHILDREN  37 

I  deem  of  sufficient  importance  to  print  in  this 
book,  as  only  by  having  one  of  their  primers 
before  us  can  we  understand  the  character  of 
the  old  education,  and  the  kind  of  information 
and  development  that  was  given  to  the  child. 
These,  with  the  "  Four  Books  "  and  the  "  Five 
Classics,"  had  to  be  committed  to  memory,  in 
the  classical  language,  entirely  alien  to  that 
spoken  by  the  child,  before  they  were  ex- 
plained. It  was  such  a  tremendous  tax  upon 
the  memory,  and  required  so  many  years  for 
its  accomplishment,  that  there  was  no  chance 
for  Reason  and  the  higher  faculties. 

The  girl  may  be  taken  out  of  this  home 
class,  or  domestic  school,  at  any  period  of  her 
progress,  relegated  to  the  women's  apartments, 
where  she  is  put  to  studying,  or  allowed  to 
read  a  series  of  books  of  an  entirely  different 
nature.  These  may  be  "  The  Filial  Piety  Classic 
for  Girls,"  "  The  Classic  for  Girls,"  and  the  "  Four 
Books  for  Girls,"  studies  that  have  been  prepared 
definitely  and  distinctly  for  women.  A  per- 
usal of  "  The  Classic  for  Girls,"  a  translation  of 
which  we  give  in  another  chapter,  will  enable 
us  to  form  a  better  opinion  of  what  the  Chinese, 
under  the  old  regime,  considered  a  proper 
education  for  girls,  than  any  number  of  opinions 
from  one  of  an  alien  civilization.  I  wish  I 
might  insert  the  whole  "  Four  Books  for  Girls  ' 
here,  a  translation  of  which  I  have  in  my 
possession,  for  only  by  the  reading  of  such 
literature  can  one  form  an  adequate  opinion  of 


38  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

what  they  thought  the  education  of  a  girl 
ought  to  be. 

The  Chinese,  without  any  influence  from  or 
association  with  Europeans,  originated  the 
biggest  educational  system  ever  made  by  a 
non-Christian  people.  It  was  entirely  a  moral 
system  which  had  to  do  with  man's  relation  to 
his  fellow-man.  The  basis  of  his  whole  educa- 
tional scheme  was  Confucianism,  his  greatest 
moral,  and  his  best  religious  system.  What 
now  has  happened  to  this  enterprize  which  it 
took  him  fifteen  hundred  years  to  develop  ? 

Credit  should  be  given  to  whom  credit  is  due. 
China  has  given  up  this  whole  old  educational 
system.  Why,  and  for  what  ?  When  the 
truth  is  known,  and  the  world  is  ready  to  admit 
the  truth,  it  will  be  found  that  the  missionary, 
during  the  past  century,  but  more  especially 
during  the  past  fifty  years,  has  been  estab- 
lishing schools,  colleges,  and  universities  all 
over  the  empire,  has  been  translating  books 
of  Western  science,  philosophy,  literature,  and 
common  school  text-books  into  the  Chinese 
language,  and  it  was  the  practical  character  of 
these  books,  as  well  as  the  practical  character 
of  the  education  of  the  young  men  and  women 
who  went  out  from  these  mission  schools,  that 
led  the  State  to  request  such  men  as  Dr.  W.  A.  P. 
Martin,  Dr.  C.  D.  Tenney,  Dr.  W.  M.  Hayes, 
Dr.  E.  T.  Williams,  Dr.  John  C.  Ferguson,  Dr. 
Timothy  Richards,  and  Miss  Gertrude  Howe, 
all  of  whom  went  to  China  as  missionaries,  to 


SCHOOL    LIFE    OF    CHILDREN  39 

establish  schools  for  the  Government,  until  as  a 
result  of  these  schools  China  has  thrown  over- 
board the  old  system  which  it  took  her  fifteen 
hundred  years  to  develop,  and  has  adopted 
the  system  introduced  by  the  missionaries, 
about  which  we  shall  have  more  to  say  when 
we  speak  of  the  education  of  the  poor. 

When  the  new  regime  began  there  was  tre- 
mendous excitement.  Schools  began  to  be 
opened  in  the  homes  of  the  middle  and  wealthy 
classes  all  over  the  empire.  The  first  thing  these 
students  desired  to  do  was  to  discard  the  old 
smock  or  long  garment  worn  by  the  people, 
and  adopt  a  uniform,  with  cap  and  shoes,  after 
the  style  of  those  worn  by  the  foreign  soldiers 
whom  they  had  seen,  but  especially  after  the 
style  of  the  Japanese.  The  more  gold  braid 
they  could  get  upon  their  garments  the  better. 
This  was  carried  at  times  to  almost  a  ridiculous 
extent,  though  at  other  times  their  clothing 
was  perfectly  plain — blue  cloth  in  winter  and 
white  muslin  or  khaki  in  summer.  Naturally 
they  were  not  able  to  adopt  the  entire  Western 
outfit,  for  they  had  no  method  of  laundrying 
collars,  cuffs,  and  shirt,  and  so  they  had  their 
coat  buttoned  up  to  the  neck  in  military  style, 
and  dispensed  with  the  linen.  Foreign  trousers, 
too,  supported  by  suspenders,  was  foreign  to 
their  uniform,  as  their  own  were  always  held 
in  place  by  a  girdle  about  the  waist.  This  not 
infrequently  caused  them  to  appear  most 
ridiculous. 


40  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

One  day  while  attending  the  sports  on 
"  field  day "  at  the  Imperial  University,  a 
warm  day  in  spring  or  early  summer,  in  Peking, 
I  observed  the  vice-president  of  the  University, 
clothed  in  woven  underwear,  with  a  duck  coat, 
military  style,  unbuttoned  all  the  way  down, 
and  his  trousers  also  unbuttoned,  but  one  side 
drawn  as  far  as  possible  over  the  other  and  held 
up  by  a  girdle,  the  most  ridiculous  sight  on  the 
part  of  a  high  official,  I  think,  that  I  have  ever 
beheld. 

The  boys  in  many  of  the  schools  had 
orchestras,  consisting  of  all  kinds  of  brass 
instruments  and  drums,  and  were  willing  to 
come  to  the  Peking  University  and  entertain 
us  with  their  music.  Their  repertoire,  though 
not  large  nor  varied,  made  up  in  volume  what 
it  lacked  in  variety,  and  they  did  not  hesitate 
to  repeat  again  and  again  what  they  had 
already  played.  But  of  all  the  interesting 
years  I  have  spent  in  China,  none  were  more 
entrancing  than  those  years  which  found  young 
China  with  only  a  Derby  hat,  a  vest,  or  a  pair 
of  leather  shoes,  to  indicate  that  he  had  broken 
from  the  dead  past,  and  was  a  part  of  the  living, 
moving,  pulsating  present. 

Nor  were  the  girls  behind  the  boys  in  their 
desire  and  effort  to  break  from  the  past.  I 
remember  on  one  occasion,  while  on  Liu  Li 
Chang,  the  great  book  and  curio  street  of 
Peking,  I  was  told  by  the  shopkeepers  that  a 
Chinese  circus  was  in  operation  in  a  vacant 


SCHOOL   LIFE    OF    CHILDREN  41 

lot  near  by.  I  went  to  see  it.  Women  with 
bound  feet  were  riding  horseback  after  the 
style  of  our  own  circus  women.  Others,  on  the 
trapeze  a  hundred  feet  high,  were  twisting 
themselves  up  in  ropes  so  far  apart  that  they 
could  only  reach  them  with  their  hands  and 
feet.  They  would  then  twist  the  ropes  held 
by  hand  and  foot  about  each  other  until  they 
were  wound  tight  together,  then  letting  loose 
they  whirled  about  in  the  air,  until  finally  they 
let  go  their  hands  as  though  about  to  fall,  but 
hung  by  one  small  bound  foot  caught  in  the 
noose  of  the  other  rope.  But  the  interesting 
part  of  it  to  me,  as  I  passed  in,  was  my  being 
greeted  by  a  princess — I  do  not  need  to  mention 
her  name,  my  friends  in  Peking  will  recognize 
who  it  was — who  had  her  whole  school  of 
some  forty  or  fifty  girls  in  a  private  box  made 
of  reed  mats,  witnessing  the  performance.  It 
was  this  same  princess  who  drilled  her  girls 
and  had  them  appear  on  a  public  platform  in 
recitations  and  calisthenics  before  a  mixed 
purely  Chinese  audience,  that  had  gathered 
in  memory  of  a  principal  of  a  school  who  had 
taken  her  own  life  because  the  officials  did  not 
respond  to  her  call  for  support  for  her  school. 


CHAPTER  IV 

EDUCATION   OF  THE   POOR 

IT  is  a  serious  matter  to  try  to  say  what  people 
love  learning  most.  It  is  also  very  difficult 
to  determine  what  class  of  any  people  are 
most  deeply  intent  on  acquiring  knowledge,  but 
I  would  not  be  inclined  to  put  the  Chinese 
second  even  to  the  Germans  in  their  love  for 
learning.  And  if  I  were  to  select  a  particular 
class  of  the  Chinese  who  are  most  willing  to 
sacrifice  to  secure  an  education,  I  think  I 
would  select  the  students  who  come  from  the 
homes  of  poverty.  The  reason  for  this  is 
perhaps  because  they  know  the  privations  of 
poverty,  and  the  possibilities  of  relief  in  an 
education,  but  I  am  more  inclined  to  believe 
that  it  is  pure  love  of  learning,  and  this  for  the 
reason  that  Chinese  history  is  so  full  of  stories 
of  poor  boys  who  became  great  scholars  under 
the  most  self-sacrificing  circumstances,  and 
then  either  refused  to  take  office,  or  accepted 
it  under  protest. 

I  would  not  depend,  however,  upon  Chinese 
history  for  my  information.  For  sixteen  years 
I  have  been  a  teacher  of  Chinese  boys  in  the 
Peking    University,    where    boys — poor    boys 

42 


EDUCATION    OF   THE    POOR  43 

from  the  farm — have  lived  without  complaint 
on  seven  shillings  a  month — a  month,  I  say ; 
have  been  compelled  by  the  rules  of  the  school 
to  put  out  their  lights  at  ten  o'clock,  and  have 
exemplified  all  the  stories  of  diligent  students 
I  have  ever  found  in  history.  Added  to  this, 
let  me  say  that  forty  of  the  first  fifty-two 
graduates  of  the  school  accepted  positions  as 
Christian  teachers  or  preachers  on  salaries  of 
twenty  shillings  or  less  a  month,  when  they 
were  offered  five  to  ten  times  that  amount  if 
they  would  go  into  business.  While  many  of 
those  who  entered  business,  either  because 
they  were  not  fitted  for  a  professional  life, 
or  for  other  personal  reasons,  agreed  to  put 
some  other  poor  boy  through  college.  I  have 
therefore  seen  so  many  of  the  historical  inci- 
dents embodied  in  real  life  that  I  am  convinced 
that  they  are  not  without  foundation. 

Nothing  is  so  much  of  an  honour  to  a  village 
as  a  scholar.  Though  the  great  Han  Yii 
(768-824  a.d.)  was  born  in  Teng-chou  in  Honan, 
because  his  ancestors  came  from  Ch'ang-li  in 
Chihli,  that  village  claims  him  as  her  son,  and 
of  nothing  else  is  she  so  proud.  And  well  she 
may  be,  for  the  great  poet  and  essayist  Su 
Tung-p'o  says  that  "  from  the  age  of  the  Hans, 
the  Truth  began  to  be  obscured,  and  literature 
to  fade.  Supernatural  religions  sprang  up  on 
all  sides,  and  many  eminent  scholars  failed  to 
oppose  their  advance,  until  Han  Yii,  the  cotton- 
clothed,    arose    and    blasted    them    with    his 


44  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

derisive  sneer."  He  left  a  poem  written  to  his 
son  on  the  importance  of  education,  a  part  of 
which  is  as  follows  : 

"  If  you  want  to  know  the  effect  of  an  education, 
It  is  that  the  wise  and  the  fool  are  of  the  same  origin. 
Two  families  each  have  a  son  : 
The  skill  of  the  two  babies  is  the  same. 
When  they  are  a  little  older, 
They  play  together  like  a  couple  of  fish. 
Up  to  the  age  of  twelve  or  thirteen, 
There  is  but  little  difference  in  their  appearance, 
At  twenty,  they  are  more  unlike  : 
One  is  a  clean  canal,  the  other  a  cesspool. 
At  thirty,  their  physical  development  is  certain. 
But  one  is  a  hog,  the  other  a  dragon. 
The  latter  flies  away, 
And  cannot  help  the  toad  upon  its  way, 
The  former  is  the  driver  of  a  horse. 
His  back  is  flogged  and  becomes  the  bane  of  insects. 
The  other  is  a  duke  and  a  minister, 
Living  in  a  mansion  in  a  magnificent  manner. 
Ask  you,  what  is  the  reason  ? 
Education  and  ignorance. 
Gold  and  jade  although  so  dear, 
Waste  away  and  disappear, 
Education  is  kept  within  you, 
While  the  body  lives  it  is  abundant. 
Whether  people  are  high  or  low 
Is  not  on  account  of  their  parents. 
Don't  you  see  the  duke  and  the  minister, 
Being  developed  from  the  farmer  ? 
Don't  you  see  the  descendants  of  the  nobles, 
Hungry  and  cold,  go  without  even  a  donkey  ?  " 

Such  is  the  advice  of  the  "  cotton-clothed  " 
philosopher,  poet,   and  statesman  to  his  son. 


EDUCATION    OF   THE    POOR  45 

I  wish  I  could  add  that  his  son  took  the  advice, 
but  I  cannot.  My  biographical  dictionary  of 
great  men  does  not  contain  his  name. 

It  is  not  only  the  hope  of  every  village  that 
it  may  have  a  scholar,  but  the  hope  of  every 
family.  In  every  village,  therefore,  we  find 
a  school.  The  homes  in  which  the  people  live 
may  be  of  sun-dried  brick,  but  poor  indeed  is 
the  village  which  does  not  have  a  temple  built 
of  brick,  in  some  part  of  which  is  a  school. 
Not  infrequently  the  school  is  separate  from 
the  temple.  A  teacher  is  called  by  the  village, 
who  is  allowed  to  live  in  the  schoolroom,  or  in 
some  room  connected  with  the  school,  and  the 
pupils  not  only  receive  his  instruction,  but 
some  one  or  more  of  them  may  be  appointed 
to  serve  him.  They  become  his  disciples  in  a 
truly  Oriental  fashion — a  way  that  is  not  known 
in  the  West. 

It  was  one  of  the  common  sights  in  the  city, 
as  well  as  in  the  country,  under  the  old  regime, 
to  see  a  company  of  small  boys,  at  or  before 
sun  up,  trudging  along  the  road  to  school,  a 
little  bundle  of  books  done  up  in  a  blue  cotton 
square  of  muslin,  in  their  hands  or  under 
their  arm.  The  books  may  be  those  used  by 
their  elder  brother,  their  father,  or  even  their 
grandfather,  for  their  curriculum,  as  we  have 
already  indicated,  has  changed  but  little  during 
the  past  centuries.  Some  of  these  books  were 
written  by  Confucius  and  his  disciples  twenty- 
four   centuries   ago,   one   by   Mencius   twenty- 


46  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

two  centuries  ago,  another  by  Chu  Hsi  seven 
centuries  and  more  ago,  and  they  have  not 
changed.  And  indeed  why  should  they  change  ? 
They  are  for  the  most  part  on  morals  and  not 
on  science,  and  the  moral  laws  continue  from 
age  to  age,  while  the  theories  of  science  are 
ever  in  flux.  An  education  with  a  Chinese  boy 
had  much  to  do  with  the  end  of  life,  rather 
than  the  means  of  living.  With  him  it  was 
how  to  live  right,  morally  ;  with  us  it  is  how 
to  live  comfortably,  scientifically. 

There  are  no  classes  in  these  village  schools. 
Each  child  is  given  his  book  and  his  task.  No 
boy  can  keep  any  other  back  ;  none  can  hurry 
any  other  forward.  Here  we  have  individu- 
ality. Each  boy  begins  his  book  alone.  If  he 
is  diligent  and  clever  he  may  learn  his  task  in 
half  the  time  used  by  a  companion  who  enters 
the  same  day  with  him.  Of  the  first  books  he 
studies  he  does  not  understand  a  word,  all  he 
is  expected  to  do  is  to  learn  the  names  of  the 
words.  It  is  a  prodigious  feat  of  memory,  as 
though  he  were  learning  ten  thousand  A.B.C's 
by  sight.  But  this  he  does.  When  his  task 
is  completed,  all  studying  aloud,  and  the  teacher 
can  readily  distinguish  a  mispronunciation,  he 
takes  his  book  to  the  desk,  turns  his  back  to 
the  teacher,  and  repeats,  not  recites,  it.  In 
case  there  are  any  mispronunciations,  they  are 
corrected,  and  the  teacher  then  allows  him  to 
read  over  another  task,  telling  him  the  names 
of  the  characters  he  does  not  recognize,  that 


EDUCATION    OF    THE    POOR  47 

he  may  return  to  his  seat  and  memorize  it  as 
he  has  done  the  other. 

At  about  9.30  the  children  go  home  for  their 
breakfast,  returning  at  once  to  their  task,  and 
continuing  until  about  four  in  the  afternoon, 
when  they  have  their  second  meal.  They  eat 
only  twice  a  day,  spend  about  eight  or  nine 
hours  in  study,  and  are  allowed  to  play  from 
supper  till  dark. 

All  kinds  of  stories  are  told  to  children  to 
spur  them  to  diligence  in  their  work  of  securing 
an  education.  One  of  their  stock  stories  is  of 
the  mother  of  Mencius,  the  Paul  of  Confucian- 
ism. After  the  death  of  the  boy's  father,  she 
lived  near  a  cemetery,  and  she  soon  discovered 
that  her  son  began  to  reproduce  the  scenes 
which  were  constantly  being  enacted  before  his 
eyes.  "This  will  not  do,"  she  said  to  herself. 
"  I  cannot  allow  my  son  to  be  always  playing 
at  funerals,"  and  she  moved  to  a  house  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  a  meat-market.  It  was  not 
long  until  she  found  her  son  playing  at  butcher- 
ing animals.  "  Such  games  will  ruin  the  dis- 
position of  my  son,"  said  she,  and  she  changed 
her  residence,  this  time  taking  a  house  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  a  school.  Little  Mencius  soon 
began  to  play  that  he  was  a  scholar,  to  the 
great  joy  and  satisfaction  of  his  mother.  How- 
ever, when  the  real  work  of  preparing  lessons 
came,  there  were  times  when,  like  most  boys, 
he  failed  to  prepare  his  task,  and  one  day  when 
he  came  home  in  a  lazy  mood,  he  found  his 


48  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

mother  spinning,  and  when  she  discovered 
that  he  had  neglected  his  studies,  she  took  a 
pair  of  shears  and  cut  her  web  in  half,  that  she 
might  impress  upon  him  that  such  neglect  in 
his  boyhood  would  ruin  his  whole  life.  The 
lad  then  buckled  down  to  study,  and  made  a 
name  for  himself  which  stands  second  only  to 
that  of  Confucius. 

I  know  of  nothing  that  will  better  illustrate 
the  nature  of  their  study  than  my  translation 
of  their  "  Book  of  Behaviour  for  Boys,"  given 
as  the  following  chapter. 


CHAPTER  V 

RULES  OF  BEHAVIOUR  FOR  CHILDREN 


K 


PREFACE 

ULES  of  behaviour  for  brothers  and  sons, 
Teachings  of  ancient  and  virtuous  ones  ; 
First  be  you  filial  and  brotherly,  then 
Try  to  be  faithful  and  earnest  as  men. 


Love  in  each  heart  for  all  people  should  spring, 
Specially  to  the  benevolent  cling  ; 
Strength  if  you've  left,  be  it  small,  be  it  great, 
Spend  it  in  study,  both  early  and  late. 

FILIAL   AFFECTION 

Whenever  the  summons  of  parents  you  hear, 
Answer  at  once,  do  not  tardy  appear  ; 
Whenever  the  mandate  of  parents  you  know, 
Heed  them  at  once,  never  lazily  go. 
To  every  instruction  of  parents  you  need 
To  respectfully  listen,  with  deference  heed  ; 
Parental  reproofs,  if  they  ever  should  come, 
Kindly  receive,  and  with  lips  that  are  dumb. 

Warm  well  their  couch  on  the  cold  winter  days, 
Fan  their  couch  cool  from  the  sun's  scorching  blaze.1 
Greet  them  and  serve  them  whene'er  you  arise, 
See  to  their  wants  before  closing  your  eyes, 
Tell  them  your  errands  when  leaving  your  home, 
Returning,  announce  it  as  soon  as  you  come. 

1  A  reference  to  Huang  Hsiang,  page  30. 
a  49 


50  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

Every  young  man  should  have  definite  work  ; 
This  he  should  neither  abandon  nor  shirk  ; 
Always  in  e'en  the  most  trifling  affair 
He  the  parental  opinion  should  share  : 
Once  by  neglecting  with  them  to  consult, 
Failure  in  duty  will  be  the  result. 

From  parents  at  home  the  most  trivial  toy 
Conceal  not  for  personal  use  to  employ  ; 
If  aught  you  for  personal  use  should  conceal 
Wounded  the  hearts  of  your  parents  will  feel. 

Whatever  your  parents  delight  to  possess, 
Strive  to  obtain,  be  it  food,  be  it  dress  : 
Whatever  your  parents  regards  with  displeasure, 
To  remove  from  their  presence,  employ  every  measure. 

If  ever  you  injure  your  body,  be  sure 
Sorrow  your  parents  will  have  to  endure  : 
If  ever  you  sully  your  virtue,  your  blame 
Will  redden  the  cheeks  of  your  parents  with  shame. 

When  parents  bestow  upon  children  their  love, 
To  be  filial  to  such  very  easy  will  prove, 
But  those  who  from  parents  receive  only  hate 
And  still  remain  filial,  their  virtue  is  great. 

If  faults  in  your  parents  by  chance  you  should  see, 
Reprove  them  and  help  them  to  virtuous  be  : 
Reprove  with  the  love-lighted  face  of  a  child, 
Reprove  with  a  voice  that  is  gentle  and  mild  ; 
Reproof  that  is  slighted  may  give  your  heart  pain, 
But  joyfully,  kindly  reprove  them  again  ; 
Follow  with  tear-streaming  eyes  and  reprove  them, 
Murmur  not  though  they  should  beat  you,  but  love  them. 

Should  your  parents  by  illness  be  ever  laid  low, 
First  taste  of  their  potion,  its  safety  to  know  ; 
By  day  and  by  night  your  best  services  give, 
And  stay  by  their  bedside  as  long  as  they  live. 


RULES  OF  BEHAVIOUR  FOR  CHILDREN     51 

Mourn  for  three  years  from  the  time  they  are  dead ; 

Let  them  be  bitter  the  tears  that  you  shed  : 

Of  meat  you  should  neither  partake,  nor  of  wine, 

To  dwell  in  poor  quarters  should  be  your  design. 

Perform  ceremonial  rites  every  year  ; 

Each  sacrifice  offered  should  prove  you  sincere  ; 

In  a  word,  the  dead  parents  of  you  who  survive, 

You  should  serve  with  the  fevour  you  served  when  alive. 

BROTHERLY   KINDNESS 

The  duty  of  elder  to  younger  is  love, 
Of  younger  to  elder  respect  all  approve  ; 
Fraternal  agreement  they  cannot  neglect, 
For  wrapped  up  within  it  is  filial  respect. 

Possessions  they  neither  should  greedily  prize  ; 
Then  how  could  such  feelings  as  hatred  arise  ? 
If  each  in  his  language  should  gently  forbear, 
Then  anger,  self-conquered,  must  vanish  in  air. 

When  brothers  are  drinking,  or  when  at  their  meat, 
When  brothers  are  seated,  or  walk  on  the  street, 
The  elder  should  always  the  younger  precede, 
The  younger  should  follow, — thus  men  have  decreed. 

If  the  elder  should  summon  a  person  by  word, 
The  younger  should  hasten  to  make  the  call  heard  ; 
In  failing  to  find  him,  your  duty  is  plain, 
From  taking  his  place  not  a  moment  refrain. 

RESPECTFULNESS 

Men  who  are  older,  whenever  addressed, 
Never  their  name  but  their  title  is  best ; 
When  you  talk  with  those  older,  whatever  you  feel, 
Your  talents  with  diligence  strive  to  conceal ; 
In  walking,  whenever  those  older  you  meet, 
Approach  with  a  bow,  and  with  reverence  greet  ; 
If  it  be  not  his  wish  to  express  his  respect, 
Retreat  and  respectfully  stand  up  erect. 


52  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

When  riding  or  driving,  you  always  descend 
From  your  horse  or  your  cart  when  you  meet  with  a  friend, 
Nor  mount  till  your  friend  has  passed  by,  I  should  say, 
A  hundred,  or  more  than  that,  steps  on  his  way. 

When  those  older  are  standing  it  never  is  fit, 
Whether  indoors  or  out,  that  a  young  man  should  sit  ; 
When  an  old  man  is  sitting  a  young  man  should  stand, 
And  wait  to  be  seated  till  he  shall  command. 

Whenever  grown  people  are  present,  a  child 
Should  speak  with  a  voice  that  is  gentle  and  mild, 
Not  too  low  for  the  elder  to  hear  what  you  say, 
No  advantage  arises  from  speaking  that  way, 
Approach  him  with  haste,  then  all  will  admire, 
Withdrawing,  you  always  should  slowly  retire  ; 
When  answering  questions,  politely  arise, 
Nor  move  from  one  side  to  another  your  eyes. 

From  service  of  uncles  you  never  should  swerve, 
But  serve  them  the  same  as  your  parents  you  serve, 
And  cousins  who  chance  to  be  older  than  you, 
You  should  do  to  them  just  as  to  brothers  you  do. 

DILIGENCE 

Awake  in  the  morning,  arise  with  the  sun, 
Retire  late  at  night  when  your  lessons  are  done, 
Remember  that  age  will  come  easily  on, 
Utilize  youth,  for  'twill  quickly  be  gone. 

Wash  in  the  morning  your  hands  and  your  face, 
Rinse  well  your  mouth,  or  'twill  be  a  disgrace  ; 
Your  hat  should  be  straight  and  not  worn  on  one  side, 
Your  clothing  be  buttoned,  not  left  gaping  wide. 
Your  shoes  and  your  stockings  should  both  be  on  right ; 
Make  sure  they  are  neat  and  make  sure  they  are  tight ; 
In  order  your  hat  and  your  clothing  to  trace, 
Assign  to  each  one  a  particular  place. 


RULES  OF  BEHAVIOUR  FOR  CHILDREN     53 

If  thrown  in  confusion  they'll  quickly  be  soiled, 
And  all  of  your  clothing  will  surely  be  spoiled ; 
In  cleanliness  beauty  of  clothing  consists, 
But  beauty  in  gorgeousness  never  exists  ; 
Yourself  and  surroundings  should  harmony  show, 
Beyond  your  resources  you  never  should  go. 

When  eating  or  drinking  of  this  have  a  care, 
Do  no  picking  or  choosing,  wherever  you  are  ; 
If  good  be  the  food,  do  not  make  matters  bad 
By  saying  that  other  much  better  you've  had. 

In  youth  or  young  manhood,  wherever  you  dine, 
Let  this  be  your  motto, — "  I'll  never  drink  wine  "  ; 
If  once  you  are  drunken,  you  lose  your  good  name, 
And  how  loathsome  it  is,  and  how  great  is  your  shame  ! 

When  walking,  walk  straight,  do  not  swaggering  go, 
When  you  stand,  stand  erect,  that  you  handsome  may 

grow; 
Let  your  bow  be  profound  to  the  persons  you  meet, 
And  greet  with  respect  whomsoever  you  greet. 

Stand  not  on  a  doorstep,  stand  inside  or  out, 
Lean  not  against  aught  that  by  chance  is  about, 
Do  not  sit  like  a  dust-pan,  your  legs  spreading  wide, 
Nor  back  and  forth  move  them  from  this  to  that  side. 

Raise  slowly  the  screen  when  you  enter  a  room, 
That  clatter  may  never  announce  you  have  come  ; 
In  turning  a  corner  in  wide  circle  move, 
To  bump  'gainst  the  corner  will  awkwardness  prove, 
When  you  bear  empty  vessels,  be  careful  to  go, 
So  that  empty  or  full,  people  never  can  know. 

When  you  enter  a  room,  you  should  act  on  the  minute, 
As  though  many  people  already  were  in  it ; 
Perform  duties  slowly  and  cultivate  taste, 
For  a  homely  old  proverb  says, — "  Haste  maketh  waste." 


54  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

Never  fear  your  work  arduous,  show  yourself  true, 
Nor  look  lightly  on  what  you're  expected  to  do. 

A  public  disturbance  'tis  manly  to  fear, 
And  excepting  on  duty,  to  never  draw  near  ; 
A  knowledge  of  vice  you  should  never  desire, 
And  of  matter  corrupt  you  should  never  inquire. 

Whenever  you  enter  a  house,  it  is  clear, 
You  should  ask  as  you  enter,  "  Is  anyone  here  ?  " 
When  to  enter  a  house  you  design,  have  a  care 
With  some  kind  of  noise  to  announce  you  are  there. 

If  asked,  "  Who  is  there  ?  "  to  avoid  any  blame, 
You  should  answer  the  person  at  once  with  your  name  ; 
If  you  answer,  "  Tis  I,"  as  the  vulgar  oft  say, 
They  will  not  understand  who  is  coming  their  way. 

If  another  man's  things  you  by  chance  wish  to  use, 
You  should  ask  for  them,  giving  a  chance  to  refuse  ; 
If  you  use  without  asking,  that  manner  of  dealing 
By  men  is  considered  no  better  than  stealing. 
Whenever  you  borrow  be  sure  that  you  learn, 
The  thing,  after  using,  to  promptly  return  ; 
If  others  to  borrow  of  you  be  inclined, 
If  you  have,  you  should  lend,  with  a  generous  mind. 


FAITHFULNESS 

When  speaking,  let  this  be  your  motto,  from  youth,- 
The  first  of  all  things  in  importance  is  truth, 
And  words  of  deceit  or  expressions  untrue, 
Should  ne'er  be  reported  as  coming  from  you. 
Let  others'  loquacity  constantly  teach 
That  for  you  it  were  well  to  be  sparing  of  speech; 
For  the  truth  of  whate'er  you  report  to  a  friend, 
For  proof,  on  your  eloquence  never  depend. 


RULES  OF  BEHAVIOUR  FOR  CHILDREN     55 

You  should  never  insult  any  person  'tis  plain, 
Nor  utterance  give  to  expressions  profane  ; 
'Gainst  market-place  habits  and  street  talk  keep  guard, 
That  your  speech  be  not  sullied,  your  manners  be  marred. 

Where  proof  is  deficient  and  evidence  weak, 
Of  any  such  matters  you  never  should  speak  ; 
Unless  you  are  certain  your  proof  is  exact, 
You  should  never  so  much  as  refer  to  the  fact. 

Things  barren  of  profit,  which  often  cause  harm, 
You  never  should  rashly  agree  to  perform, 
And  about  a  rash  promise,  if  ever  you  make  it, 
'Tis  wrong  if  you  keep  it,  and  wrong  if  you  break  it. 

Whenever  with  others  you  chance  to  converse, 
To  enunciate  badly,  you  could  not  do  worse, 
Unless  you  should  speak  in  too  rapid  a  way, 
Or  mumble  the  words  you  are  trying  to  say. 

When  you  hear  a  man  argue  a  thing  thus  and  so, 
And  another  declare  an  emphatical  no  ; 
If  the  matter  is  one  of  no  moment  to  you, 
Not  to  utter  a  word  is  the  best  thing  to  do. 

You  should  think  when  a  virtuous  person  you  see, 
"  Such  virtue  is  possible  also  for  me," 
And  though  far  below  him  you  move  at  the  time, 
By  striving  you  yet  to  his  level  may  climb. 

If  wickedness  under  your  vision  should  come, 
Examine  yourself  lest  you  also  have  some  ; 
Repent  if  you  find  in  your  heart  aught  of  sin, 
Let  your  care  be  increased,  if  you  find  naught  within. 

Your  virtue  and  learning  examine  with  care, 
Your  talents  and  skill,  though  they  may  not  be  rare, 
If  to  those  of  your  friends  they  inferior  prove, 
By  putting  forth  strength  e'en  the  world  you  may  move. 


56  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

If  your  clothing  and  shoes  are  not  just  to  your  mind, 
If  when  you  examine  your  food,  you  should  find 
It  is  not  quite  so  good  as  the  people's  around  you, 
Be  sure  you  allow  no  such  matters  to  wound  you. 

When  friends  mention  faults,  if  your  anger  is  raised, 
Or  should  you  be  happy  whenever  you're  praised, 
The  friends  who  are  hurtful  will  gather  anon, 
While  those  who  are  helpful  will  quickly  be  gone. 

When  others  extol  you,  let  fear  be  your  choice, 
When  others  find  fault,  'tis  a  time  to  rejoice  ; 
Then  those  who  are  upright,  and  scholars  sincere, 
Though  slowly,  yet  surely,  to  you  will  adhere. 

When  wrong  not  intended  is  done  by  mistake, 
We  call  it  a  "  fault  "  for  the  wrongdoer's  sake, 
But  wrong  that  is  done  with  intention  is  blamed, 
And  such  by  all  people  is  "  wickedness  "  named. 

The  faults  you  repent  of  are  nevermore  seen, 
But  are  reckoned  with  others  which  never  have  been  ; 
But  if  ever  a  failing  you  try  to  conceal, 
Your  efforts  a  greater  will  surety  reveal. 


LOVE   ALL,   ESPECIALLY  THE   BENEVOLENT 

To  the  people  around  you,  below  or  above, 
Your  duty  is  clear,  everyone  you  should  love  ; 
One  circling  heaven  is  over  all  spread, 
One  flowering  earth  produces  our  bread. 

If  your  conduct  is  that  of  a  nobleman  pure, 
Of  fame  and  esteem  you  are  certainly  sure, 
And  honour,  if  honour  upon  you  should  fall, 
Will  not  be  for  outside  appearance  at  all. 
If  your  talents  are  brilliant,  however  attired, 
You  will  always  be  courted,  and  greatly  admired, 


RULES  OF  BEHAVIOUR  FOR  CHILDREN     57 

But  others,  to  second  your  efforts,  you'll  find, 
Will  never,  because  of  your  talk,  be  inclined. 

If  of  skill  or  ability  you  are  possessed, 
You  should  never  let  selfishness  enter  your  breast ; 
When  ability  likewise  in  others  is  praised, 
A  thought  to  defame  them  should  never  be  raised. 

With  flattery  never  the  rich  seek  to  gain, 
With  pride  in  your  heart,  ne'er  the  poor  man  disdain  ; 
Your  back  never  turn  to  old  friends  tried  and  true, 
Nor  rejoice  beyond  measure  in  those  who  are  new. 

Men  not  at  leisure,  or  men  having  cares, 
You  never  should  trouble  with  other  affairs  ; 
When  men  are  disturbed,  or  have  other  employ, 
You  should  never  by  talking  such  persons  annoy. 

If  your  lot  with  a  wrongdoer  ever  be  cast, 
Remind  him  not  daily  of  that  which  is  past, 
The  personal  secrets  a  man  would  conceal, 
You  cannot  by  right  to  another  reveal. 

To  speak  of  the  good  that  in  others  you  find, 
In  you  is  considered  benignant  and  kind, 
For  when  they  discover  you  speak  in  their  praise, 
They  will  earnestly  seek  to  still  better  their  ways. 

To  speak  of  the  faults  that  in  others  you  find, 
In  you  is  considered  bad  taste  and  unkind ; 
You  soon  will  receive  and  will  merit  their  hate, 
And  disaster  will  come  when  alas  !   'tis  too  late. 
If  to  good  you  each  other  incite,  nothing  loath, 
You  soon  will  establish  the  virtue  of  both  ; 
If  faults  in  each  other  you  do  not  correct, 
In  the  duty  of  each  there  will  be  a  defect. 

Receiving  or  giving,  make  sure  that  both  know, 
The  amount  you  receive,  the  amount  you  bestow ; 


58  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

When  giving,  give  much,  is  the  best  I  should  say, 
And  when  taking,  take  little, — a  very  safe  way. 

What  you  think  proper  treatment  for  others  would  be, 
First  ask  :   "  Would  this  conduct  be  pleasing  to  me  ?  " 
If  you  would  dislike  it  if  done  unto  you, 
Do  not  do  what  you  would  not  have  other  men  do. 

You  should  recompense  favours  whenever  bestowed, 
And  offences  forgotten  will  lighten  your  load  ; 
If  ever  you  punish,  you  lightly  should  do  it, 
But  recompense  freely, — you  never  will  rue  it. 

Your  treatment  of  servants,  'tis  surely  decreed, 
Majestic  should  be  if  you  wish  to  succeed, 
But  while  majesty  is  in  a  master  a  beauty. 
To  be  gracious  and  kind  is  as  truly  a  duty. 
For  if  by  authority  men  are  controlled, 
Their  hearts  you  will  never  be  able  to  hold  ; 
If  their  hearts  you  secure  in  a  virtuous  way, 
They  are  satisfied  then  and  have  nothing  to  say. 

All  people  are  men,  but  examine  their  minds, 
And  you  find  there  are  many  and  different  kinds, 
That  the  mass  follow  custom  is  painfully  true, 
While  benevolent  people  are  certainly  few. 
But  those  who  benevolence  follow  in  truth, 
Are  respected  by  all, — men  and  women  and  youth  ; 
In  the  ring  of  their  words  is  no  recondite  sound, 
Their  appearance  seductive  will  never  be  found. 
If  thus  to  benevolent  persons  you  cling, 
To  you  'twill  unnumbered  advantages  bring  : 
Your  virtues  will  daily  increase  it  is  true, 
And  your  faults  will  diminish  as  rapidly  too. 

If  to  cling  to  benevolent  men  you  refuse, 
Untold  will  the  injury  be  that  you  choose  ; 
Mean  people  will  gather,  encompassing  you, 
And  spoil  all  the  good  you  might  otherwise  do. 


RULES  OF  BEHAVIOUR  FOR  CHILDREN     59 

SPEND   YOUR   SURPLUS   STRENGTH   IN    STUDY 

If  these  things  you  neglect,  as  some  people  have  done, 
And  spend  all  your  time  in  book  study  alone, 
You'll  become  superficial  though  much  you  may  know, 
And  to  what  sort  of  man  can  you  hope  thus  to  grow  ? 

If  you  practise  these  rules  and  continue  their  use, 
But  study  no  books,  you  will  then  be.obtuse  : 
You  will  see  things  from  only  your  own  point  of  view, 
And  thus  subvert  principles  useful  and  true. 

Your  method  of  study  the  poet  here  sings, 
Should  have  a  foundation  of  three  little  things  : 
The  heart,  eye,  and  mouth,  for  each  one  is  a  link, 
And  all  are  important  in  study,  we  think. 

When  you  study  a  book,  let  your  thought  be  confined 
And  banish  all  other  good  books  from  your  mind, 
For  before  you've  completed  the  reading  of  one, 
You  should  never  be  wishing  another  begun. 
Take  time  to  complete  it,  you  ne'ertheless  ought 
To  be  diligent  still  in  your  study  and  thought, 
For  when  to  your  work  you  with  diligence  go, 
Each  obstacle  you  will  with  ease  overthrow. 

If  of  aught  in  the  book  you  should  have  any  doubt, 
Write  it  down  ;   'tis  the  thing  to  ask  questions  about  ; 
Inquire  then  about  it  again  and  again, 
In  order  its  meaning  to  clearly  obtain. 

Your  room  should  be  neatly  and  orderly  kept, 
The  walls  should  be  spotless,  the  dust  from  them  swept ; 
The  tables  be  clean,  and  of  dust  without  traces, 
Your  pen  and  your  ink-stone  arranged  in  their  places. 

If  your  ink-stick  you  rub  in  a  one-sided  way, 
Your  heart  is  not  upright,  good  people  will  say  ; 
Do  you  lack  in  respect  for  the  characters,  then 
Your  heart  is  already  corrupted  by  men. 


60  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

In  order  that  each  of  your  books  you  may  trace, 
For  each  you  should  have  a  particular  place, 
And  when  you  have  finished  the  reading  of  one, 
Put  it  back  whence  you  took  it  before  'twas  begun, 
And  though  you  should  be  in  a  hurry,  you  ought 
To  wrap  up  the  books  just  as  when  they  were  bought  ; 
If  a  torn  place  in  one  you  should  ever  discover, 
Then  neatly  repair  it  by  pasting  it  over. 

Unless  'tis  a  sacred  or  classical  book 
Reject  it,  nor  ever  vouchsafe  it  a  look, 
For  such  will  intelligence  only  impede, 
And  injure  the  mind  'twas  intended  to  feed. 

Ne'er  violate  self  with  o'erburdensome  cares, 
Nor  waste  noble  traits  upon  trifling  affairs ; 
Then  virtue  like  those  who  are  holy  and  pure, 
You  by  gradual  growth  may  expect  to  secure. 

I  cannot  help  adding  a  word  here  to  those 
who  have  turned  over  this  chapter.  Nothing 
that  any  alien  can  write  can  exhibit  the  home 
life,  or  the  mind  of  the  Chinese,  like  the  trans- 
lations of  these  primers  that  are  embedded  in 
their  memories.  This  is  what  they  teach, 
what  they  think,  what  they  do,  what  they 
live.  Much  of  what  foreigners  write  about  them 
is  only  their  own  imagination  of  what  they  do. 
If  you  want  to  get  at  the  motives  back  of 
Chinese  conduct  read  the  translations  of  what 
they  learn. 


CHAPTER  VI 

GIRLS 

WHAT  is  more  interesting  than  a  young 
girl  ?  Not  to  men  merely,  but  to 
women  as  well.  I  remember  that  in 
1896  my  wife  returned  to  America,  after  having 
spent  eight  years  in  China,  and  she  wrote  : 
"  You  ought  to  be  here  and  see  the  beautiful, 
rosy-cheeked  girls."  Now  let  us  remember 
that  the  Chinese  are  just  folks — just  human 
beings  like  ourselves — and  a  thing  that  is 
fraught  with  so  much  interest  to  us  cannot  be 
without  interest  to  them. 

The  whole  type  of  their  civilization,  however, 
is  different  from  ours.  Their  society  is  based 
upon  honour  for  the  aged,  while  ours  is  based 
upon  the  development  of  the  youth  ;  theirs  is, 
therefore,  conservative,  ours  is  progressive.  In 
China  the  young  honour,  obey,  and  serve  the 
aged  ;  in  the  West  the  old  live  for  the  develop- 
ment of  their  children.  China  emphasizes 
solidarity,  and  the  household  hangs  together 
until  it  becomes  a  village — except  that  the 
girls  go  out  to  help  make  other  homes  or 
villages,  while  other  girls  from  other  homes 
come  in  to  help  make  theirs.     The  girl,  there- 

61 


62  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

fore,  is  not  a  permanent  part  of  the  home  in 
which  she  is  born.  The  West  emphasizes  indi- 
vidualism where  each  man  and  woman  make 
their  own  home — a  new  home  in  which  they 
start  as  equals.  Through  the  centuries  this  has 
had  a  tendency  to  give  man  a  kind  of  a  per- 
manency, while  woman  has  seemed  transient. 

In  China,  again,  the  family  is  a  co-operative 
community,  much  like  the  West  was  before 
the  advent  of  factories  and  machinery.  The 
men  gathered  the  raw  material  such  as  wheat, 
corn,  rice,  millet,  and  the  various  kinds  of 
foodstuffs,  while  the  business  of  the  women 
was  to  grind  and  prepare  them  for  use.  The 
men  got  the  hemp,  flax,  cotton,  and  skins,  and 
the  women  spun  them  into  thread  and  weaved 
them  into  garments.  The  men  were  strong, 
the  women  were  weak,  and  all  their  labour 
had  a  tendency  to  develop  these  characteristics. 

Again,  the  bearing  and  rearing  of  children 
must  necessarily  determine  the  place  occupied 
by  women.  The  only  place  she  could  live  was 
in  the  home  if  she  performed  her  functions 
and  her  duties.  She  is  protected,  he  is  the 
protector.  This,  again,  has  a  tendency  to  em- 
phasize and  increase  weakness,  while  the  act 
of  defence  and  protection  has  a  tendency  to 
develop  strength  in  the  man.  And  so  the 
woman  is  called  the  nei  jen,  the  inside  person, 
while  the  man  is  left  on  the  outside  to  do 
battle  with  the  world. 

But  the  final  and  determining  factor  in  the 


/"N 


THE  TOILET 


GIRLS  63 

relegation  of  the  woman  to  the  home  is  the 
desire  to  preserve  her  virtue,  and  the  fear  that 
it  will  be  impossible  to  do  so  if  the  sexes  are 
allowed  to  commingle  promiscuously  as  they 
do  in  Japan  and  in  the  West.  Whether  the 
Western  world  has  yet  reached  a  final  con- 
clusion on  this  matter,  let  our  schools  and 
colleges  answer.  Is  it  not  pertinent  to  ask, 
have  we  reached  a  final  conclusion  on  the 
separation  of  the  sexes  ?  And  is  it  not  fair 
to  ask  if  the  Chinese  method  of  segregating 
the  sexes  is  an  error  in  which  there  is  no 
compensation  ? 

In  general  a  baby  girl  in  China  receives  the 
same  tender  care  as  a  boy,  and  it  is  not  an 
uncommon  sight  to  see  a  father  within  the 
confines  of  his  own  courtyard  dancing  his  baby 
daughter  on  his  knee  with  as  much  fondness 
as  he  would  his  son.  Up  to  the  age  of  five 
or  six  the  girl  participates  equally  with  her 
brother  in  all  the  privileges  of  the  home  ex- 
cepting those  which  would  tend  to  make  her 
a  "  tomboy."  At  this  age  the  lines  are  drawn. 
The  feet  of  the  girl  are  bound.  I  can  see  the 
eyebrows  of  my  female  readers  go  up  as  they 
say,  "What  a  cruel  custom!"  So  it  is,  so  it 
is  !  But  the  disposition  to  want  little  feet,  or 
little  waists,  will  lead  girls  to  endure  great 
discomforts,  and  induce  them  to  submit  to 
customs  which  make  them  weaker  and  more 
helpless  than  they  are  by  nature.  At  first 
small  feet  were  only  a  form  of  beauty,  later 


64  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

they  became  a  mark  of  gentility,  and  finally 
they  became  a  sine  qua  non  of  a  bride. 

Miss  Tsao,  who  knows  what  she  is  writing 
about,  says  :  "  The  duty  of  administering  this 
unnatural  torture  devolves  upon  the  mothers 
who,  in  stamping  their  own  flesh  with  the  mark 
of  gentility,  have  for  generations  gone  about 
the  task  with  dogged  determination,  and  often- 
times with  many  a  bitter  tear.  Fond  fathers 
have  interceded  in  vain  against  this  invulner- 
able custom  which  has  served  time  and  again 
as  a  cause  for  an  unquiet  house.  Rare  ex- 
ceptions are  known  when  both  parents  agree 
to  supply  their  daughters  with  stilted  shoes  as 
a  means  of  defeating  the  practice.  Generally, 
the  mothers  have  forgotten  their  past  suffer- 
ings, and,  feeling  proud  of  their  own  small  feet, 
apply  bandages  to  those  of  their  daughters." 
The  girl  is  thus  placed  in  a  different  sphere 
from  that  of  the  boy.  Personally  I  have 
known  two  ladies  of  two  of  the  best  families 
in  Peking  who  wore  stilted  shoes  on  their  toes 
to  prevent  having  their  feet  bound. 

The  education  received  by  a  Chinese  girl 
before  the  advent  of  mission  schools  was  a 
negligible  quantity.  Under  the  old  tutorial 
system,  education  had  as  its  aim  the  training 
of  men  for  business  or  government  service, 
and  since  women  were  not  supposed  to  enter 
official  service  their  education  was  not  deemed 
necessary.  This,  however,  does  not  imply  the 
utter  negligence  of  female  education,  for  loving 


GIRLS  65 

parents  have  often  given  their  daughters  the 
rudiments  of  knowledge  in  common  with  their 
sons  under  the  same  family  or  village  tutor, 
while  the  desire  of  the  girls  themselves  to  read 
the  many  books  that  were  about  them  led 
them  to  complete  their  education. 

Under  such  circumstances  the  children  of  the 
poor  were  often  wholly  neglected,  "  but  in  the 
upper  and  middle  classes  girls  generally  go  to 
school  till  the  age  of  adolescence,  when  it  is 
considered  improper  for  them  to  be  seen  con- 
stantly out  of  doors,  so  that  it  is  only  in 
families  where  tutors  could  be  afforded  M  that 
their  education  was  continued  in  the  regular 
way.  This  implies  a  general  knowledge  of 
reading,  writing  letters,  and  ciphering.  From 
that  time  till  marriage  the  greater  part  of  her 
time  would  be  devoted  to  sewing,  embroidery, 
painting,  cooking,  and  general  domestic  arts. 
These  duties  often  mean  an  endless  task  in 
helping  to  furnish  the  household  with  simple 
articles  of  dress  and  food,  such  as  hats,  shoes, 
socks,  shirts,  coats,  trousers,  under  and  outer 
clothes,  preserves,  pastry,  &c.  In  households 
of  reduced  circumstances  piecework  in  sewing, 
pastry,  lanterns,  making  match-boxes,  weaving 
baskets,  and  the  minor  employments  of  the 
silk  and  tea  industries,  might  be  carried  on  as 
a  means  of  helping  to  keep  the  wolf  from  the 
door. 

A  Chinese  girl  has  little  social  life.     There 
are  no  parties  nor  balls  for  her,  no  dinners  nor 
5 


66  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

teas  at  hotels  or  public  places,  no  summer 
outings  nor  picnics,  no  visits  for  week-ends  to 
country  nor  city  cousins.  The  few  social  en- 
joyments usually  mean  dressing  up  and  being 
on  her  good  behaviour.  The  chief  occasions 
that  send  a  ripple  of  cheer  and  excitement 
through  the  heart  of  a  Chinese  girl  is  when  she 
has  the  prospect  of  attending  a  fair  held  at 
some  temple,  a  theatrical  performance,  perhaps 
in  her  own  courtyard,  or  it  may  be  at  the 
theatre,  a  sewing  circle,  a  birthday  or  a  wedding 
feast.  Short  trips  are  sometimes  made  to 
gardens  during  the  flowering  seasons,  to  a 
temple  for  worship,  or  to  witness  a  religious 
procession.  But  upon  all  occasions  she  is 
chaperoned.  She  is  never  allowed  to  go  out 
in  company  with  a  young  man,  unless  it  be 
a  "  near  relation  or  an  intimate  friend  of  the 
family  in  case  of  parties." 

The  first  landmark  in  the  life  of  a  girl  is  the 
binding  of  her  feet,  the  second  her  engagement, 
and  the  third  her  marriage.  The  first  is  at 
the  age  of  five  or  six,  the  second  at  twelve  to 
fourteen,  and  the  third  at  sixteen  to  twenty. 

Engagements  and  marriages  are  arranged  by 
parents  through  middlemen,  who  by  the  way 
are  usually  women.  The  wife  is  usually  selected 
by  the  mother,  while  the  husband  is  selected  by 
the  father,  and  this  because  the  mother  knows 
the  girls  and  has  to  live  with  them  after  they 
are  brought  to  her  home,  while  the  father 
knows  or  may  easily  learn  about  the  boys.     It 


GIRLS  67 

is  unnecessary  to  say  that  parents  are  usually 
careful,  and  while  tragedies  sometimes  occur, 
in  general  the  marriages  are  not  unfortunate. 
The  young  people  have  no  love  affairs,  and 
hence  are  without  comparisons,  and  each 
accepts  the  other  and  tries,  let  us  hope,  to  be 
what  the  other  expects  them  to  be.  "  Marriage 
in  the  West  often  means  the  removal  of  senti- 
mental masks  of  mutual  consideration,"  says 
Miss  Tsao,  "  while  in  the  East  it  is  the  begin- 
ning of  love-making." 

"  To  sum  up  briefly,  we  cannot  say  that  the 
children  have  no  voice  in  the  engagement, 
neither  can  we  say  that  marriage  is  not  sacred, 
for  only  the  first  wife  enjoys  the  privilege  of  a 
wedding  ceremony,  and  this  binding  tie  is  very 
difficult  to  annul :  nor  can  we  say  that  there 
is  no  love,  although  neither  party  ever  openly 
admits  it." 

In  conclusion,  a  girl's  life  has  none,  or  but 
few,  of  the  privileges  and  pleasures  of  her 
sister  of  the  West.  She  has  less  education, 
fewer  social  privileges,  less  experience  of  the 
world,  and  is  taught  to  be  filial  and  submissive 
to  all  the  older  members  of  her  family.  But 
her  parents  see  to  it  that  she  is  married,  and 
unless  her  family  is  poor,  she  is  not  expected 
to  earn  her  own  living.  Her  Western  sister  is 
better  educated,  more  independent,  has  more 
social  privileges,  more  temptations  to  over- 
come, more  battles  to  fight,  and  is  expected  to 
take  care  of  herself. 


68  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

One  phase  of  the  education  of  a  girl  will  be 
found  in  the  following  chapter,  in  which  the 
reader  will  find,  if  he  but  gives  it  close  atten- 
tion, that  her  trials  are  mostly  the  result  of  the 
communistic  character  of  their  family  life — 
the  effort  to  live  in  peace  and  harmony  with 
all  her  sisters-in-law. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   CLASSIC   FOR   GIRLS 


T 


NU  ERH  CHING 
SECTION   I 
HIS  instruction  for  my  sisters 


I  have  called  the  NU  Erh  Ching  ; 
All  its  precepts  you  should  practise,  all 
its  sentences  should  sing  ; 
You  should  rise  from  bed  as  early  in  the  morning  as  the  sun, 
Nor  retire  at  evening's  closing,  till  your  work  is  wholly  done. 

Then  by  wrapping  in  a  towel, 

So  that  clean  your  hair  may  keep, 
You  should  early  take  your  brushes  and  should  neatly 

dust  and  sweep. 
Pay  particular  attention  that  the  dust  may  not  arise, 
Clean  your  own  apartments  neatly,  and  'twill  glad  your 
parents'  eyes. 

Then  your  hair  comb  smooth  and  shiny, 

And  your  face  no  dirt  should  show, 

To  your  needle-work  and  cooking,  very  early  you  should 

go. 
And  embroider  well  the  pheasant,  and  the  phoenix,  and 

the  drake. 
Idle  visits  to  your  neighbours  you  should   very  seldom 

make. 

Though  the  Changs  may  all  be  perfect, 
And  the  Lees  imperfect  be, 
Their  perfection  or  their  failings  you  should  never  deign 
to  see, 

69 


70  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

And  your  relatives  and  neighbours,  if  on  you  they  ever 

call, 
With  politeness  entertain  them,  and  converse  with  one 

and  all. 

Don't  say  :   "  Father's  sister's  ugly, 
But  my  mother's  sister's  good," 
Though  your  neighbours  thus  discuss  them,    you    most 

surely  never  should, 
And  as  long  as  you're  a  maiden,  you  at  home  should  always 

stay, 
And  be  very,  very  careful,  of  whatever  you  may  say. 

When  the  day  is  dead  and  buried 
And  the  moon  is  very  small, 
As  a  maiden,  in  the  darkness  you  should  never  walk  at  all, 
If  to  go  is  necessary,  you  should  summon  as  a  guide 
A  good  servant  with  a  lantern,  who  will  linger  by  your 
side. 

Let  your  laugh  be  never  boisterous, 
Nor  converse  in  noisy  way, 
Lest  your  neighbours  all  about  you  hear  whatever  you 

may  say, 
Then  be  dignified  in  walking,  and  be  orderly  in  gait, 
Never  lean  against  a  door-post,  but  in  standing,  stand  up 
straight. 

SECTION    II 

FROM    SEVEN   TILL   TWENTY 

When  the  wheel  of  life's  at  seven, 
You  should  study  woman's  ways, 
Leave  your  bed  when  day  is  breaking,  early  thus  begin  the 

days, 
Comb  your  tresses  smooth  and  shiny,  keep  yourself  both 

clean  and  neat, 
Bind  your  "lilies"1  tight  and  tidy,  never  go  upon  the 
street. 

1  The  small  feet  of  a  Chinese  woman. 


THE    CLASSIC    FOR    GIRLS  71 

When  the  wheel's  at  eight  or  over, 
While  you  gradually  grow, 
Both  your  old  and  younger  brothers,  you  should  intimately 

know, 
And  while  peacefully  partaking  of  the  tea  and  rice  and  wine, 
About  eating  much  or  little  never  quarrel  while  you  dine. 

When  the  wheel  at  ten  is  turning, 
You  should  never  idle  be, 
To  the  making  of  your  clothing  and  the  mending  you 

should  see. 
Your  position  should  be  daily  sitting  at  your  mother's 

feet, 
Nor,  excepting  on  an  errand,  should   you   go  upon   the 
street. 

When  the  wheel  has  turned  eleven 
You  have  grown  to  womanhood, 
And  all  culinary  matters  should  be  clearly  understood. 
If  from  fancy-work  or  cooking  you  can  save  some  precious 

hours, 
You  should  spend  them  in  embroid'ring  ornamental  leaves 
and  flowers. 

When  the  wheel  has  turned  to  thirteen 
You  propriety  should  prize. 
When  your  presence  people  enter,  you  politely  should 

arise. 
Toward  your  aunts,  your  father's  sisters,  and  his  younger 

brothers'  wives, 
You  should  not  neglect  your  manners  from  the  nearness 
of  your  lives. 

When  the  wheel  has  turned  to  fifteen, 
Or  when  twenty  years  have  passed, 
As  a  girl  with  home  and  kindred,  these  will  surely  be  your 

last. 
While  expert  in  all  employments  that  compose  a  woman's 

life, 
You  should  study  as  a  daughter  all  the  duties  of  a  wife. 


72  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

SECTION    III 

A  wife's  virtues 

First,  though  not  the  most  important, 
Is  that  filial  you  should  be. 
Filial  piety  and  honour  heaven  naturally  will  see. 
For  the  favour  of  your  parents  is  as  deep  as  earth  and 

heaven, 
You  should  recompense  their  kindnesses  as  long  as  life 
is  given. 

Then  respect  your  elder  brothers, 
And  your  elder  brothers'  wives, 
For  disturbance  has  no  foothold  in  a  home  where  virtue 

thrives, 
And  a  girl  possessed  of  virtue,  when  no  jealous  thoughts 

can  come 
To  her  well-developed  nature,  is  the  jewel  of  the  home. 

Then  a  third  important  virtue 
Is  to  save  the  rice  and  flour, 
For  economy  in  trifles  such  as  oil  and  salt  has  power. 
When  provisions  are  abundant,  think  of  when  they  will 

be  scant, 
And  prepare  in  time  of  plenty  for  a  future  time  of  want. 

You  should  well  prepare  the  cooking, 
Be  the  food  however  plain, 
And  be  able  in  receiving  to  politely  entertain. 
Things   when   first   they   come   to   market,   though   you 

purchase  do  not  eat, 
But  your  own  and  husband's  parents  with  such  dainties 
you  should  treat. 

It  is  also  quite  important, — 
Listen,  girls,  to  what  I  mean, — 
That  your  old  or  new-made  garments  all  be  scrupulously 
clean  ; 


THE    CLASSIC    FOR    GIRLS  73 

For  if,  diligent  and  tidy,  you  yourself  do  not  neglect, 
Who  of  relatives  and  neighbours  such  a  one  does  not 
respect  ? 

If  again,  I  may  advise  you, 
Tis  that  evil  thoughts  are  sin, 
Love  no  other  one's  possessions,  covet  not  a  single  pin. 
If  you  slight  your  neighbour-duties  and  their  love  you 

do  not  prize, 
You,   your  parents  and  your  brothers,   all  will  utterly 
despise. 

Then  a  meek  and  lowly  temper 
Is  restriction  number  seven, 
Your  relation  to  your  husband  is  the  same  as  earth  to 

heaven, 
Where  the  hen  announces  morning,  there  the  home  will 

be  destroyed,1 
You  from  lack  of  woman  s  virtue  neighbour's  scorn  cannot 
avoid. 

This  the  eighth  you  may  rely  on, 
By  you  all  it  should  be  known, 
If  you  diligently  manage  you  can  make  a  happy  home. 
As  a  filial  son  will  never  house  and  home  from  parents 

tear, 
So  a  wife  her  wedding  garments  should  not  always  wish 
to  wear. 

Ninth,  a  girl  should  prize  her  virtue, 
And  of  goodness  never  tire, 
For,  a  jade  that's  pure  and  flawless,  who  does  not  with 

joy  admire  ? 
Anciently  a  girl  was  guarded,  from  her  virtue  would  not 

part, 
Pure  as  diamonds  was  her  body,  firm  as  iron  was  her 
heart. 

1  This  sentence  is  found  in  the  Book  of  History — Shu-Ching — 
Legge,  vol.  iii.,  part  ii.,  p.  302.  This  Shu-Ching  was  edited  by 
Confucius  more  than  580  years  B.C. 


74  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

Tenth  and  last  that  I  would  offer 
Is,  be  cautious  all  your  life, 
Once  you  marry  'tis  for  ever,  once  you  may  become  a  wife, 
Three  dependencies,  four  virtues,  let  them  all  be  perfect  : 

then, 
Who  can   say  that  'mongst  our  women,   there  are    no 
"  superior  men  "  ? x 

SECTION    IV 

THE  THREE   DEPENDENCIES 

"  Girls  are  difficult  to  manage," 
This  is  often  said  as  true, 
So  from  youth  till  grown  to  teach  them  is  the  best  that 

we  can  do. 
If  she  disregards  instruction  and  refuses  to  be  good, 
Husband's  parents  will  abuse  her,  as  indeed  they  often 
should. 

Girls  have  three  on  whom  dependent, 
All  their  lives  they  must  expect, — 
While  at  home  to  follow  father,  who  a  husband  will  select,2 
With  her  husband  live  in  concord  from  the  day  that  she 

is  wed, 
And  her  son's  directions  follow  if  her  husband  should  be 
dead.3 

SECTION    V 

THE   FOUR   VIRTUES 

There  are  four  important  virtues 
Which  a  maiden  should  possess. 
I  will  one  by  one  rehearse  them  that  your  minds  they 
may  impress. 

1  I  have  given  the  ordinary  translation  of  the  words  Chiin-tzu. 

a  The  father  selects  a  husband  for  his  daughter.  He  knows  the 
boys. 

3  The  son  is  the  business  head  of  the  home,  but  the  mother  may 
whip  him  even  after  he  is  a  man. 


THE    CLASSIC    FOR    GIRLS  75 

First,  like  Lady  T'sao1  be  perfect,  and  your  happiness 

secure, 
Who  in  virtue,  and  deportment,  and  in  words  and  work 

was  pure. 

First  of  all  a  woman's  virtues 
Is  a  chaste  and  honest  heart, 
Of  which  modesty  and  goodness  and  decorum  form  a 

part. 
If  in  motion,  or  if  resting,  a  becoming  way  is  chief ; 
You  should  guard  against  an  error  as  you  guard  against 
a  thief. 

In  your  personal  appearance 
You  should  ever  take  delight. 
Ne'er  depend  upon  cosmetics,   whether  they  be  red  or 

white ; 
Comb  and  bathe  at  proper  seasons  ;    all  the  dirt  remove 

with  care  ; 
In  the  washing  of  your  clothing  no  exertions  should  you 
spare. 

Of  the  virtues  of  a  woman, 
Conversation  is  the  third. 
By  your  friends  'tis  often  better  to  be  seen  than  to  be 

heard, 
But  to  speak  at  proper  seasons  will  incur  no  one's  disdain, 
And  one  fit  word  o'er  a  thousand  will  the  victory  often 
gain. 

Fourth,  the  duties  of  a  woman, 
You  should  never  dare  to  shirk. 
Know  that  drawing  and  embroidering  is  not  all  of  woman's 

work, 
You  should  labour  at  your  spinning  all  the  time  you 

have  to  spare, 
And  the  flavourings  for  cooking  you  should  constantly 
prepare. 

1  Author  of  the  first  of  the  four  books  for  girls. 


76  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

SECTION    VI 

DUTIES  TOWARD  OTHERS 

As  the  favour  of  your  parents 
Is  as  great  as  heaven's  joy, 
To  be  filial  to  your  parents  you  should  all  your  strength 

employ, 
As  Ti-ying,  that  filial  maiden,  who,  her  father's  life  to  save, 
By  presenting  a  petition  him  thus  rescued  from  the  grave. 

All  your  father's  elder  brothers, 
And  his  younger  brothers  too, 
Are  your  intimate  relations — the  same    bone  and  flesh 

as  you. 
You  should  ne'er  expression  utter  which  would  break  the 

family  chain, 
Thus  denoting  you  forget  those  who  in  youth  did  you  main- 
tain. 

Of  the  wives  of  these  your  uncles, 
Old  and  younger  just  the  same, 
If  unfilial  in  your  girlhood  you  will  surely  be  to  blame. 
Though  they  manifest  no  anger,  if  you  thus  unfilial  prove, 
All  your  faults  will  be  detected — you  will  lose  your  neigh- 
bour's love. 

You  should  honour  elder  brothers 
And  their  wives  you  should  respect, 
Nor  should  treat  them  badly,  hoping  you  your  parents 

will  protect. 
All  the  members  of  your  household  should  in  peace  and 

quiet  dwell, 
Then  no  wrangling  nor  disturbance  will  your  disagree- 
ments tell. 

With  the  fam'lies  of  your  neighbours, 
Whether  Chang  or  whether  Lee, 
Let  your  intercourse  exhibit  fellowship  and  harmony. 
Do  not  constantly  require  that  your  wishes  they  indulge, 
Do  not  carry  idle  gossip  and  their  secrets  thus  divulge. 


THE    CLASSIC    FOR    GIRLS  77 

SECTION   VII 

REASONS   FOR   CERTAIN   CUSTOMS 

Have  you  ever  learned  the  reason 
Why  your  ears  should  punctured  be  ? 
'Tis  that  you  may  never  listen  to  the  talk  of  Chang  and 

Lee. 
True  the  holes  were  made  for  ear-rings  that  your  face 

may  be  refined, 
But  the  other  better  reason  you  should  ever  keep  in  mind. 

At  your  throat  you  wear  a  button, 
It  should  teach  you  as  a  guide, 
That  you  never  should  while  walking,  turn  your  head 

from  side  to  side, 
And  the  layers  of  your  clothing  have  a  lesson  for  you  too, 
They   should  decorate   your  body   as  the   clouds   adorn 
Mt.  Wu. 

Then  a  woman's  upper  garment, 
And  her  skirt  should  teach  again, 
That,  though  living  with  her  husband,  she  is  on  a  differ- 
ent plane, 
She  should  follow  and  be  humble,  that  it  ne'er  be  said 

by  men, 
That  "  the  morning  there  is  published  by  the  crowing 
of  the  hen." 

Have  you  ever  learned  the  reason 
For  the  binding  of  your  feet  ? 
'Tis  from  fear  that  'twill  be  easy  to  go  out  upon  the 

street. 
It  is  not  that  they  are  handsome  when  thus  like  a  crooked 

bow, 
That  ten  thousand  wraps    and  bindings  are  enswathed 
around  them  so. 


78  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

SECTION   VIII 

DUTIES    AS   A   WIFE 

As  a  wife  to  husband's  parents, 
You  should  filial  be  and  good, 
Nor  should  suffer  imperfection  in  their  clothing  or  their  food. 
Be  submissive  to  their  orders,  all  their  wants  anticipate, 
That,  because  his  wife  is  idle,  they  your  husband  may 
not  hate. 

Be  submissive  to  your  husband, 
Nor  his  wishes  e'er  neglect, 
First  of  all  in  this  submission  is  his  parents  to  respect. 
Economical  and  active  you  should  ever  strive  to  be, 
Nor  complain  that  Chang  has  nothing,  and  that  few  are 
poor  as  Lee. 

With  his  brothers'  wives  be  peaceful, 
And  his  sisters  all  respect, 
And  affectionately  treat  them,  nor  their  company  neglect. 
Let  not  sisterly  affection  be  by  servants'  stories  killed, 
Nor  with  smiles  your  face  be  covered  while  with  hate 
your  heart  is  filled. 

Though  your  husband  may  be  wealthy, 
You  should  never  be  profuse  ; 
There  should  always  be  a  limit  to  the  things  you  eat  and 

use. 
If   your   husband   should   be   needy   you   should   gladly 

share  the  same, 
Being  diligent  and  thrifty,  and  no  other  people  blame. 

For  your  guests  arrange  in  order, 
Both  your  table  and  your  dress, 
Be  not  stingy  in  providing,  nor  yet  lavish  to  excess. 
Ne'er  in  treatment  of  your  callers  over-closely  count  the 

cost, 
But  if  lavish  in  expending  all  your  wealth  will  soon  be 
lost. 


THE    CLASSIC    FOR    GIRLS  79 

SECTION   IX 

DUTIES  AS  A  MOTHER 

Of  pre-natal  education 
Be  attentive  as  a  mother, 
For  the  influence  is  mutual  of  each  upon  the  other. 
Whether  walking,  standing,  sitting,  or  reclining,  have  a 

rule, 
E'en  in  eating  and  in  drinking  have  a  care  yourself  to 
school. 

Ne'er  by  fondness  spoil  your  offspring, 
Whether  it  be  girl  or  boy  ; 
By  indulgence  soon  its  temper  you  will  utterly  destroy. 
Tho'  in  youth  it  matters  little,  yet  the  time  will  surely 

come 
When  your  children  are  indifferent  to  themselves  and  to 
their  home. 

When  he  grows  to  years  of  boyhood 
Then  a  teacher  call  at  once, 
Who  will  books  and  manners  teach  him  that  he  may  not 

be  a  dunce. 
Lazy  habits  in  his  study  will  good  people  all  annoy, 
And  his  indolence  the  prospects  of  his  future  life  destroy. 

For  your  daughter  in  her  girlhood, 
To  learn  fancy-work  is  best, 
Ne'er  allow  her  to  be  idle — lolling  to  the  east  or  west. 
If  in  youth  you  do  not  teach  her,  when  full-grown  'twill 

be  too  late, 
When  she  marries  it  will  bring  her  only  shame,  disgrace, 
and  hate. 

When  your  son  arrives  at  manhood, 
Then  a  wife  for  him  secure,1 
Never  mind  about  her  parents,  whether  they  be  rich  or 
poor. 

1  The  mother  selects  her  son's  wife  as  the  father  his  daughter's 
husband.    The  father  knows  the  boys,  the  mother  knows  the  girls. 


80  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

If  the  maiden  have  but  virtue,  if  the  maiden  have  but 

health, 
She  will  manage  well  her   household,  she  will   bring  her 

husband  wealth. 

When  your  daughter  weds  she  then  is 
To  her  husband's  family  brought, 
To  be  frugal  in  the  household  she  by  parents  should  be 

taught. 
To  his  parents,  as  a  daughter,  she  should  kind  and  filial  be, 
And  submissive  to  her  husband,  to  his  home  should  gladly 
see. 

Should  your  sons,  when  you  are  aged, 
Other  people's  daughters  wed, 
If  impartially  you  treat  them  they  will  easily  be  led. 
Don't  because  the  one  is  wealthy  and  the  other  one  is 

poor, 
Treat  the  one  as  though  a  goddess,  and  the  other  as  a 
boor. 

And  the  children  of  your  children, 
Boys  or  girls,  no  matter  which, 
You  should  love  them  as  your  jewels,  whether  they  be 

poor  or  rich. 
To  your  neighbours  be  a  neighbour  that  no  person  may 

declare, 
That  you  love  your  kindred  only,  but  for  others  do  not 
care. 

Thus  we  end  the  woman's  Classic. 
You  should  learn  it  part  by  part, 
And  should  practise  it  and  keep  it  always  living  in  your 

heart. 
If  you  learn  but  do  not  heed  it  you  will  simply  be,  of 

course, 
Though  arrayed  in  women's  garments,  as  a  cow  or  as  a 
horse. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

MARRIAGE 

A  WEDDING  in  China  is  a  gay  and  noisy 
affair,  and  is  always  accompanied  with 
L  big  and  elaborate  feasts,  each  invited 
guest  taking,  in  a  red  envelope,  a  sum  of  money 
sufficient  to  a  little  more  than  pay  for  the  food 
that  he  eats.  If  you  were  to  ask,  What  is 
"  merrier  than  a  marriage  bell  "  ?  I  would  at 
once  answer,  "  A  Chinese  wedding  feast."  It 
is  far  more  gaudy  and  expressive  of  merriment 
than  an  American  or  English  wedding,  but  not 
so  solemn.  There  is  no  occasion,  unless  it  be 
Chinese  New  Year,  that  brings  more  pleasure 
to  a  whole  village  than  a  wedding.  Everybody 
in  town  sees  the  parade,  and  everybody  who 
can  raise  the  requisite  amount  of  silver  may 
partake  of  the  feast. 

A  wedding  is  not  confined  to  a  single  day. 
It  begins  ten  days  before  the  marriage  with  the 
"  passing  of  the  big  parade,"  made  up  of  the 
gifts  from  the  bridegroom's  family  to  the 
parents  of  the  bride.  These  presents  are 
carried  by  twenty  or  thirty,  or  even  more, 
men,  dressed  in  gay  costumes,  on  trays  measur- 
ing two  by  four  or  three  by  six  feet.  Each 
6  si 


82  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

tray  contains  a  gift,  some  larger,  some  smaller, 
but  mostly  of  eatables,  such  as  nuts,  cakes, 
candies,  ham,  cooked  and  live  geese,  chickens 
and  ducks.  Accompanying  these  there  will  be 
hair  ornaments  for  the  bride,  together  with  a 
small  sum  of  money.  These  things  are  accepted 
by  the  bride's  parents,  and  in  each  tray  they 
return  small  sums  of  money,  wrapped  in  red 
paper,  as  expressions  of  their  gratitude,  to- 
gether with  a  roast  pig  or  two,  which  are  signs 
of  prosperity.  As  no  one  family  could  con- 
sume all  that  is  sent,  they  distribute  them 
among  their  friends  and  relatives,  thus  com- 
municating their  joy  to  the  neighbourhood. 

While  they  are  distributing  these  presents 
they  invite  their  wedding  guests,  while  at  the 
same  time  both  families  are  busily  engaged  in 
completing  their  preparations.  When  the  fact 
of  her  coming  marriage  is  announced  to  the 
daughter  by  her  mother,  the  girl  runs  to  her 
room  to  hide  and  weep,  presumably  because 
of  her  sadness  at  leaving  her  home.  She 
refuses  to  eat  with  the  family,  and  her  intimate 
friends  come  to  condole  with  her  and  cheer  her 
up.  Trunks  are  packed  with  everything  the 
daughter  has  expressed  a  liking  for,  and  tailors 
are  called  to  make  her  wedding  garments  and 
bedding,  unless  she  is  poor,  when  they  are 
made  by  her  family  or  even  by  herself.  Packers 
come  to  put  her  furniture  together,  decorators 
to  arrange  her  trunks,  bureaus,  chairs,  tables, 
cooking  utensils,  and  everything  she  has,  that 


■ 


*?£$ 


■-   Ml 

I 

-  *     , 


■3 


THE    BRIDE 


MARRIAGE  83 

it  may  appear  attractive  in  the  parade,  and 
these  things  are  taken  to  the  home  of  the 
bridegroom  three  days  before  the  wedding, 
that  they  may  be  properly  arranged  in  her 
apartments. 

On  the  wedding  day,  at  the  time  set  by  the 
augur,  a  long  procession  of  lanterns,  bands, 
flags,  clowns,  and  a  red  or  gilded  sedan  chair, 
reaches  the  door  of  the  bride's  home.  In 
ancient  times  the  groom  accompanied  this  pro- 
cession, which  was  called  the  rite  of  personal 
receiving,  but  in  modern  times,  when  the  pro- 
cession returns  to  his  home,  accompanied  by 
her  brothers,  the  bridegroom  meets  the  chair, 
taps  on  the  door  with  his  fan,  bows  to  the 
chair,  then  to  each  of  the  bride's  brothers,  and 
then  returns  to  the  house..  The  bride  is  then 
taken  out  of  the  chair  by  her  maids  or  brides- 
maids, and  led  into  the  house,  where  she  and  her 
future  husband  kneel  side  by  side  before  the 
ancestral  tablets  and  household  gods,  and  pay 
their  respects  to  their  aged  relatives  in  the 
form  of  a  kowtow. 

The  bride  is  then  led  to  her  room,  where  she 
awaits  the  coming  of  the  groom  to  lift  the 
bridal  veil.  When  the  veil  is  removed  she 
puts  on  a  beautiful  court  robe  and  a  pearl-like 
crown,  and  is  ready  to  appear  before  the 
relatives  and  friends  of  her  future  home. 
Assisted  by  her  servants,  she  bows  and  serves 
them  tea.  In  the  South  each  guest  in  return 
for  this  service  hands  her  over  a  present  of 


84  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

money,  the  amount  varying  according  to  the 
wealth  of  the  donor.  In  the  North  the  fore- 
head of  the  bride  is  now  shaven  so  as  to  make 
it  high  and  square,  or  the  hair  is  plucked 
therefrom,  and  is  never  allowed  to  grow  again. 

After  the  feasting,  and  as  a  means  of  amusing 
themselves,  and  testing  the  temper  of  the 
bride,  the  female  guests  play  all  kinds  of  jokes 
and  make  all  kinds  of  remarks  about  her. 
They  make  the  embarrassed  creature  guess 
conundrums,  solve  puzzles,  and  do  tricks  which 
belong  only  to  magicians,  and  answer  all  kinds 
of  embarrassing  questions.  Should  she  lose  her 
temper,  or  refuse  or  fail  to  answer,  she  is  com- 
pelled to  pay  a  forfeit  in  money  or  in  kind, 
and  this  joking  lasts  all  the  night. 

While  this  is  going  on  in  the  inner  apart- 
ments the  groom,  dressed  in  official  robes, 
perhaps  borrowed  for  the  occasion,  is  going 
through  a  similar  test,  or  furnishing  like  sport 
for  the  male  guests.  Suffice  it  to  say  that 
everybody  is  happy,  or  trying  to  be  happy, 
and  this  at  the  expense  of  the  bride  and 
groom. 

On  the  third  day  after  her  marriage  the 
bride  visits  her  parents,  and  on  the  evening  of 
that  same  day  the  groom  first  pays  his  respects 
to  his  parents-in-law,  who,  on  this  same  even- 
ing, give  a  feast  in  his  honour.  Thus  ends 
the  wedding  of  a  Chinese  bride.  It  begins  ten 
days  before  the  wedding  day,  and  ends  three 
days   after,  making  thirteen  days  in  all — "  an 


MARRIAGE  85 

unlucky  number  to  be  feasting  over  a  wedding," 
I  imagine  I  can  hear  you  say. 

The  words  used  for  the  marriage  of  a  man 
and  that  of  a  woman  are  not  the  same.  He 
"  takes  "  a  wife,  she  "  passes  out  of  the  door," 
and  so  when  the  great  procession  comes  to  the 
bride's  home,  it  comes  to  take  her  away,  and 
when  she  passes  out  of  the  door  of  her  father's 
house  she  ceases  to  be  a  member  of  his  house- 
hold and  becomes  a  member  of  that  of  her 
husband. 

When  we  consider  the  whole  Chinese  system, 
and  remember  that  the  separation  of  the  sexes 
through  life  is  the  result  of  a  desire  on  the  part 
of  the  people  to  preserve  the  virtue  of  their 
women,  we  can  begin  to  appreciate  the  in- 
tensity of  this  desire.  Innumerable  stories  are 
told  in  Chinese  literature  of  women  who  have 
given  up  their  lives  rather  than  sully  their 
virtue. 

The  married  life  of  a  Chinese  girl  is  twofold — 
her  relation  to  her  husband  and  to  his  family. 
She  is  married  to  his  family  more  than  to  her 
husband,  and  his  father  governs  his  son  even 
in  his  relations  to  his  wife.  After  his  wedding 
day  the  boy  is  separated  from  his  wife  until 
after  the  feast  at  the  bride's  parents,  and  all 
the  associations  of  the  boy  and  his  wife  are 
under  the  surveillance  of  his  father.  And  the 
one  thing  that  a  boy  fears  most  from  his  com- 
panions is  being  teased  for  hanging  about  his 
wife. 


86  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

The  bride  then  is  received  into  the  home  of 
her  mother-in-law  as  an  additional  child  to  be 
trained  in  her  duties  of  life.  She  is  not  mistress 
in  her  home,  neither  is  she  servant — though 
she  serves — she  is  simply  daughter-in-law,  and 
if  she  understands  her  duties  in  this  new  re- 
lationship, and  performs  them  as  she  should, 
being  submissive  and  humble,  she  will  be  loved 
and  honoured.  But  a  wilful  bride  and  an  un- 
reasonable mother-in-law — and  China  has  both 
of  these — may  reach  a  degree  of  strained 
relationship  that  can  scarcely  be  duplicated 
anywhere  else  in  the  world.  Those  critics  who 
quarrel  with  this  condition  of  things  need  not 
complain  of  the  bride  nor  of  the  mother-in-law 
but  of  the  system.  I  have  heard  say  that  "  no 
house  is  big  enough  for  two  families  "  ;  if  that 
is  true,  what  of  a  Chinese  house  where  there 
are  anywhere  from  two  to  half  a  dozen  families 
living  together  ? 

My  mother  has  nine  sons.  Each  of  them  has 
a  wife,  all  of  them  good  women,  though  there 
is  none  of  them  that  I  would  have  chosen,  and 
none  of  my  brothers  would  have  chosen  my  wife. 
This  is  not  saying  anything  against  my  wife  or 
my  sisters-in-law.  We  are  a  very  chummy 
family,  while  we  each  have  our  own  homes 
with  our  thirty-five  children  and  grandchildren. 
But  now  just  suppose  that  all  those  nine  sons 
were  to  have  brought  those  nine  wives,  and  to 
have  tried  to  raise  those  thirty-five  grand- 
children   under    the    parental   roof:    with    all 


MARRIAGE  87 

deference  to  our  chummy  disposition,  there 
would  have  been  hot  times  in  that  home  on 
more  than  one  occasion. 

The  parents  keep  the  closest  possible  super- 
vision over  the  young  people.  I  had  a  friend 
in  Peking — a  man  who  would  rank  as  a  farmer 
— who  came  one  day  to  invite  me  to  the 
wedding  of  his  son.  "  But,"  said  I,  '  your 
son  is  rather  young  to  be  married,  is  he  not? 
He  is  only  sixteen."  "  Quite  right,"  he 
answered,  "  but  the  girl  is  eighteen,  and  my 
wife  needs  someone  to  help  in  the  home,  and 
the  boy  would  be  just  as  well  married."  Now 
that  instance,  simple  as  it  is,  will  suffice  as  a 
sample  of  a  large  proportion  of  the  marriages 
of  the  common  people,  though  it  would  not  in 
any  way  represent  a  wedding  among  the 
student  or  better  classes.  Another  friend  had 
engaged  her  son  when  a  child  to  the  girl  child 
of  a  friend.  She  was  in  better  circumstances 
than  the  girl's  parents,  and  though  she  had 
eight  children  of  her  own,  in  order  that  the 
girl  might  be  properly  brought  up  she  took  her 
as  a  child,  put  her  into  school,  and  educated  her 
with  her  son.  And  the  close  supervision  of 
the  parents  over  these  married  children,  as 
they  might  be  called,  is  the  same  as  over  their 
sons  and  daughters,  for  the  young  wife  is  kept  in 
the  women's  apartments  and  the  young  man  in 
the  men's,  and  there  is  but  little  chance  for  them 
to  be  together  in  many  of  the  ordinary  homes. 

It  is  a  principle  with  the  Chinese  that  a  man 


88  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

may  not  marry  a  woman  of  the  same  surname, 
the  reason  being  that  she  might  be  his  relative. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  there  are  those  who  marry 
women  having  the  same  family  name  as  them- 
selves, though  public  sentiment  is  against  it. 
The  reason  given  in  the  Classics  is  that  their 
children  do  not  prosper  and  multiply.  No 
prince,  nor  even  the  Emperor,  under  the  Manchu 
dynasty,  was  allowed  to  marry  a  princess  for 
the  same  reason.  A  prince  must  marry  a  com- 
moner, who  was  raised  to  the  rank  of  a  princess, 
likewise  a  princess  must  marry  a  commoner — 
or  she  might  marry  a  Mongol  prince,  when  she 
took  the  rank  of  her  husband. 

It  was  a  custom,  too,  with  the  Chinese  princes 
that  when  a  wife  was  brought  to  his  palace 
she  was  allowed  to  live  there  for  three  months 
before  the  marriage  was  consummated,  in  order 
that  her  mother-in-law  might  discover  her 
temper  and  her  character.  If  she  proved  to 
be  of  a  bad  disposition,  or  lacking  in  such 
character  as  would  add  to  the  princely  char- 
acter of  the  home,  she  was  allowed  to  return 
to  her  parents.  No  wrong  had  been  done  her. 
Everything  depended  upon  herself.  My 
readers  will  say  that  no  such  test  was  put  upon 
the  man.  Quite  right,  there  was  none.  We 
are  not  trying  to  justify  this,  or  any  other 
Chinese  custom,  but  only  to  call  attention  to 
some  of  the  more  common  customs  of  marriage. 
I  may  just  add  that  this  was  a  custom  in  ancient 
times  which  has  probably  fallen  into  disuse. 


CHAPTER   IX 

WOMEN 

SOCIETY,  according  to  Hsun  Tzu,  is  based 
on  justice ;  according  to  Pan  Ku,  on 
love ;  and  according  to  Liu  Chung-yuan, 
on  necessity.  But  whether  legal,  ethical,  or 
economical,  society  exists,  and  as  the  basis  of 
government  is  man,  so  the  basis  of  the  social 
system  is  woman.  This  is  as  true  in  Asia  as  in 
Europe.  And  now  we  would  like  to  discover 
what  position  woman  occupies  in  the  Chinese 
social  system. 

And  first,  what  is  her  standing  ?  According 
to  Chen  Huan-chang,  Ph.D.,  author  of  the 
Economic  Principles  of  Confucius,  the  word 
wife  means"  equal.  The  Canon  of  Poetry  urges 
the  Chinese  to  "  love  your  bride  as  your 
brothers."  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  Chinese 
woman  preserves  her  own  name  when  she 
marries.  For  example,  we  will  suppose  a  Miss 
Wang  marries  a  Mr.  Liu,  she  is  always  spoken 
of  thereafter  as  Mrs.  Liu  of  the  Wang  family. 

The  separation  of  the  sexes  as  we  find  it  in 
China  prevents  any  social  system  such  as  we 
have  in  Europe  or  the  West.  Women,  for  the 
sake  of  the  preservation  of  their  virtue,  have  no 

89 


90  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

social  intercourse  with  men.  What  a  tremen- 
dous love  of  virtue  a  people  must  have  when 
they  will  forego  all  social  pleasures  for  the 
sake  of  the  virtue  of  their  women  !  This  being 
shut  away  from  the  men,  be  it  understood,  is 
no  worse  on  the  women  than  on  the  men.  It 
is  a  knife  that  cuts  both  ways.  If  she  must 
forego  all  the  pleasure  of  his  company,  he  must 
forego  all  the  pleasures  of  hers,  and  may  we  not 
suppose  that  many  skeletons  have  been  kept 
out  of  closets  by  the  fact  that  neither  the  man 
nor  the  woman  has  had  an  indefinite  number 
of  love  affairs  before  marriage  ?  My  dear 
readers,  if  I  knew  all  the  social  secrets  that  your 
minds  hold,  I  could  write  a  book  that  would 
astonish  the  world. 

In  ancient  times  women  were  appointed 
commissioners  for  the  collection  of  poetry 
from  the  people.  As  a  matter  of  fact  a  large 
number  of  women  have  distinguished  them- 
selves as  poets,  and  in  a  great  biographical 
encyclopaedia  of  1628  volumes,  376  are  devoted 
to  the  lives  of  great  Chinese  women.  In  a 
biographical  dictionary  of  Chinese  art  of  24 
volumes,  four  are  devoted  to  the  lives  of  great 
women  artists.  When  the  Emperor  of  the  Han 
dynasty  had  built  a  gallery  for  the  preservation 
of  the  portraits  of  his  great  generals,  the  Empress 
had  written  for  her  the  biographies  of  the 
great  women  of  ancient  times  as  an  inspiration 
to  the  women  of  her  day,  a  book  which  has 
come  down  through  edition   after  edition  for 


WOMEN  91 

twenty  centuries.  I  only  wish  I  might  put  in 
here  a  picture  in  my  possession  painted  by 
Wu  Chuan,  the  wife  of  Wang  Po-yu,  that  you 
might  see  her  work  as  an  artist.  Notice  that 
though  she  was  the  wife  of  Mr.  Wang  she 
always  signed  her  paintings  with  her  maiden 
name.  Whether  her  husband  was  a  worthless 
fellow  or  not  we  do  not  know,  but  we  are  told 
that  she  "  cultivated  the  field  of  her  ink-slab 
for  a  living."  As  an  artist  the  Chinese  say  she 
rivalled  the  greatest  of  her  men  contempo- 
raries, and  her  bamboo,  rocks,  and  monochrome 
flowers  were  not  only  true  to  life  but  superior 
to  any  of  those  of  the  men  of  her  times.  In 
her  youth  she  was  a  diligent  student  of  poetry, 
both  ancient  and  modern,  and  was  celebrated 
both  as  a  poet  and  penman.  Her  most  pains- 
taking work  was  done  on  her  pictures  of 
birds,  one  of  the  finest  specimens  of  which, 
in  my  possession,  is  a  picture  6  ft.  4  in.  by 
22  ft.  of  one  hundred  birds  worshipping  the 
phcenix.  The  male  and  female  phcenix  are 
near  the  centre  of  the  picture,  and  the  hundred 
birds  are  flying,  resting,  or  swimming  with  their 
heads  toward  them  as  though  in  adoration. 

What  now  is  the  position  of  the  Chinese 
woman  ?  for  it  is  the  woman  makes  the  home. 
On  the  one  hand  she  has  been  considered 
labour-burdened  and  oppressed,  and  on  the 
other  hand  the  mother-in-law  has  been  always 
described  as  a  tyrant  of  the  home.  How  do 
you  account  for  these  extraordinary  differences 


92  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

of  opinion  ?     What  is  the  true  character  and 
position  of  the  Chinese  woman  ? 

My  answer  to  this  question  would  be  that 
the  Chinese  woman  is  just  a  woman.  What 
you  find  woman  all  over  the  world,  that  you 
will  find  the  Chinese  woman.  Do  you  know 
what  woman  is  ?  I  wish  I  did.  When  I  have 
decided  what  she  is,  I  find  her  to  be  something 
else.  Take  her  physically  if  you  please.  Cut 
her  in  two  at  the  waist,  and  the  heavy  end  of 
her  would  be  down.  Her  contribution  to  the 
world  must  be  in  her  reproductive  capacity. 
In  the  words  of  Kipling  : 

"  She  can  bring  no  more  to  living  than  the  powers  that 
make  her  great, 
As  the  mother  of  the  infant,  and  the  mistress  of  the 
mate." 

Cut  a  man  in  two  at  the  waist,  and  the  heavy 
end  of  him  will  be  up.  His  shoulders  are  his 
stock  in  trade.  He  must  do  the  work  of  the 
world  if  it  is  to  be  properly  done.  I  know  that 
there  are  primitive  states  of  society  in  which 
women  have  been  made  to  plant  and  hoe,  but 
in  no  country  have  the  people  risen  to  a  high 
state  of  civilization,  or  physical  or  financial 
prosperity,  where  the  women  have  had  to 
harvest  the  grain.  Her  place  is,  therefore,  in 
the  home.  And  so  the  Chinese  call  her  the 
nei  jen  or  "  inside  person." 

A  woman's  place  in  China,  then,  is  in  the 
home,  and  in  that  capacity  she  rules  supreme. 


WOMEN  93 

In  the  home  a  man  takes  second  place.  He 
may  be  the  "  Lord  of  the  home,"  but  he  is 
only  lord  of  the  home  over  which  his  wife  is 
the  socially-appointed  presiding  officer.  This 
is  true  in  all  grades  of  society,  from  the  poorest 
peasant  to  the  imperial  palace.  Of  the  latter 
this  has  been  abundantly  illustrated  during 
the  past  fifty  years  by  the  Great  Dowager,  as 
well  as  her  successor.  For  forty-seven  years 
the  Great  Dowager  ruled  400,000,000  of  Chinese 
people  with  an  iron  hand.  This  has  been  a 
constant  surprise  to  all  Europe,  and  there  has 
been  a  continual  wonder  as  to  how  she  could 
do  it.  There  is  only  one  answer  to  the  question. 
China  is  a  paternal  form  of  government.  The 
Emperor  and  the  Empress  are  the  father  and 
mother  of  the  people,  and  it  follows,  as  it  does 
in  every  home,  that  the  Empress  Dowager  is 
the  mother-in-law  of  the  empire. 

This  was  not  only  true  of  the  Great  Dowager, 
but  it  was  true  of  all  Dowager  Empresses. 
Much  as  I  have  studied  the  Chinese  woman,  I 
was  not  a  little  surprised  during  the  recent 
rebellion  to  find  that  it  was  not  the  baby 
Emperor  nor  his  father — the  regent,  Prince 
Chun — who  gave  up  the  throne,  and  appointed 
Yuan  Shih-kai  to  establish  a  republican  form 
of  government,  but  it  was  the  Empress  Dowager, 
the  wife  of  the  late  Emperor  Kuang  Hsu,  who, 
by  the  way,  has  always  been  supposed  to  be 
a  weak  character.  It  was  she  also  to  whom 
Yuan  Shih-kai  promised   $2,000,000  a  year  as 


94  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

an  allowance.  It  was  she  to  whom  he  accorded 
the  Forbidden  City  as  a  place  of  residence. 
And  now  I  read  in  the  papers  that : 

"  The  Dowager  Empress  has  offered  to  hand 
over  to  the  reformers  the  halls  of  the  erstwhile 
forbidden  city,  which  for  hundreds  of  years 
(since  1644)  harboured  the  Manchu  dynasty. 
She  will,  at  the  same  time,  transfer  the  imperial 
family  to  the  summer  palace,  at  the  hills, 
fifteen  miles  west  of  Peking. 

"  She  was  impelled  to  this  act  by  a  desire  to 
provide  suitable  accommodation  for  the  Chinese 
Government,  which  apparently  intends  to 
accept  the  offer  when  funds  are  available  to 
carry  out  the  necessary  repairs." 

I  can  hear  some  of  my  readers  exclaim  : 
"  Extraordinary  that  a  woman  should  have  such 
authority  in  China ! "  I  answer,  not  at  all 
extraordinary,  if  you  but  remember  that  her 
realm  is  the  home,  and  that  in  that  realm  she 
is  absolute  monarch,  and  that  China  has  always 
had  a  patriarchal  or  paternal  form  of  govern- 
ment, in  the  palace  of  which  the  Empress 
Dowager  is  the  mother-in-law.  We  carry  with 
us  to  China  a  lot  of  preconceived  notions  of  our 
own  superiority,  and  of  their  ignorance  and 
inferiority,  and  then  hunt  for  incidents  to 
prove  our  theories,  instead  of  remembering 
that,  when  our  ancestors  were  clothed  in  skins, 
and  living  in  caves  and  mad  huts  in  Europe, 
or  squatting  on  their  haunches  gnawing  a  bone, 
the  Chinese  were  clothed  in  silk,  living  in  brick 


WOMEN  95 

houses  with  tile  roofs,  sitting  on  chairs,  eating 
from  tables  with  earthenware  utensils,  and  had 
a  great  government,  a  great  literature,  and  a 
civilization  which  was  a  thousand  years  ahead 
of  our  own. 

In  this  connection  may  I  call  attention  to 
another  matter,  viz.  that  the  Chinese  have  a 
civilization  of  their  own  which  they  have 
always  considered  as  much  superior  to  yours 
as  you  have  considered  yours  superior  to  theirs. 
They  were  ignorant  of  yours,  you  were  ignorant 
of  theirs.  Theirs  is  moral,  yours  is  material. 
Theirs  is  built  upon  the  relation  of  man  to  man 
in  government,  in  society,  in  the  home,  in 
business,  and  be  it  said  to  the  credit  of  the 
Chinese  that  the  two  oldest  governments  in 
the  world  to-day — China  and  Japan — are  built 
upon  the  Confucian  system.  Be  it  said  to 
their  credit  again  that  the  bankers  and  other 
business  men  of  Europe,  who  have  firms  or 
houses  located  in  the  East,  frankly  admit  that 
there  are  no  better  or  more  reliable  business 
men  in  the  world  than  the  Chinese.  Be  it  said 
to  their  credit  once  more  that  they  have  worked 
out  a  definite  domestic  and  social  system 
which  permeates  all  grades  of  society,  to  break 
any  rules  or  laws  of  which  is  almost  as  great 
a  crime  as  to  break  the  laws  of  government  or 
of  business. 

As  an  evidence  of  this  fact  China,  under  the 
old  regime,  had  six  Boards — Li,  Hu,  Li,  Ping, 
Hsing,    Rung — the    third    of    which    was    the 


96  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

Board  of  Rites  or  Ceremonies,  which  placed  this 
important  function  on  a  level  with  that  of  the 
Treasury,  War,  Works  and  Punishment.  No 
other  country  in  the  world,  so  far  as  we  know, 
has  ever  placed  as  much  stress  on  the  social 
relations  as  has  the  Chinese,  and  it  is  for  this 
reason  that  they  have  regarded  us  as  bar- 
barians. One  of  their  Five  Classics,  moreover, 
is  the  Book  of  Rites.  I  recognize  the  fact  that 
the  word  "rites"  here  has  a  much  broader 
meaning  than  our  word  "  ceremonies,"  because 
the  Chinese  have  carried  it  to  an  almost  un- 
limited extent.     This  book  tells  us  that  : 

"  The  rites  have  their  origin  in  heaven  : 
their  movement  reaches  to  the  earth  :  their 
distribution  reaches  to  all  the  business  of  the 
world :  they  change  with  the  times :  they 
agree  with  the  variations  and  skill  of  man. 
When  they  come  down  to  man  they  serve  to 
satisfy  the  human  wants.  They  are  practised 
by  means  of  wealth,  efforts  of  labour,  words  and 
postures  of  courtesy,  eating  and  drinking,  in 
the  observances  of  capping,  marriage,  funeral, 
sacrificing,  games  of  archery,  district-drinkings, 
princely  visiting  to  the  Emperor,  and  diplomatic 
intercourse." 

It  will  be  impossible  for  me  to  say  enough 
in  a  chapter  of  this  kind  to  impress  the  reader 
with  the  importance  that  the  Chinese  attached 
to  rites  and  ceremonies.  "  Rites,"  said  Con- 
fucius, "  should  be  most  carefully  considered. 
They  are  the  standards  above  which  it  is  too 


WOMEN  97 

much,  and  below  which  it  is  too  little."  A 
large  part  of  the  education  of  a  child  consists 
in  teaching  it  how  to  act,  and  putting  it  through 
the  practice  of  how  to  behave,  under  all  possible 
circumstances — in  advancing,  in  retiring,  in 
greeting,  in  serving  tea,  in  presenting  tea,  in 
standing  aside  when  a  teacher  or  superior 
passes,  in  all  kinds  of  calling,  in  every  con- 
ceivable position  under  which  one  may  be  placed. 

I  remember  one  day  in  Peking  Mrs.  Sun,  the 
daughter  of  the  Viceroy  Li  Han-chang,  brother 
of  the  great  statesman  Li  Hung-chang,  came  to 
call  at  our  home.  She  had  with  her  her  two 
little  boys  of  about  five  and  seven  years.  I  was 
invited  into  the  parlour  to  meet  her.  Now  in 
all  my  life  I  have  never  felt,  as  I  stepped  into  the 
drawing-room,  that  I  was  in  the  presence  of  a 
more  refined  woman  than  Mrs.  Sun.  Her 
hand  met  mine  with  the  most  perfect  com- 
posure, though  it  is  the  custom  of  the  Chinese 
in  greeting  to  shake  their  own  hands.  After 
speaking  a  few  words  to  her,  I  turned  to  the 
elder  of  the  two  boys.  His  hand  was  given  me 
without  the  least  embarrassment,  and  without 
any  word  from  his  mother,  as  was  likewise  the 
hand  of  the  five-year  old.  The  children  had 
been  instructed  in  our  method  of  greeting 
before  they  came,  and  they  had  the  most 
perfect  poise. 

On  another  occasion  Mrs.  Conger,  through 
Mrs.  Headland,  had  invited  a  number  of 
Chinese  ladies  of  the  very  highest  rank  in 
7 


98  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

Peking  to  a  luncheon  at  the  American  Legation. 
These  ladies  first  came  to  our  home,  and  then 
went  from  there  to  the  Legation.  It  happened 
that  the  day  set  was  the  anniversary  of  the 
death  of  a  former  emperor,  and  hence  two  sets 
of  ceremonies  had  to  be  observed.  In  going  to 
the  American  Legation  they  should  wear  their 
official  garments,  but  on  the  anniversary  of  the 
death  of  their  monarch  they  should  not  do  so. 
And  so  the  wife  of  the  Grand  Secretary  in- 
quired when  she  arrived  as  to  whether  Mrs. 
Sun  had  worn  her  coat  with  the  square  of 
pictured  silk,  the  insignia  of  her  husband's 
rank  (fiu-tzu),  on  the  front  and  back,  that  she 
might  not  be  found  wearing  one  kind  of  coat 
while  the  other  ladies  wore  one  of  a  different 
pattern. 

And  just  here  it  might  be  pertinent  to  re- 
mark that  a  Chinese  woman  is  entitled  to  the 
rank,  and  to  wear  all  the  insignia  of  the  official 
position  of  her  husband,  and  in  all  social 
functions,  even  though  she  have  no  title  of 
her  own,  she  takes  her  seat  according  to  the 
rank  of  her  husband. 

In  the  ownership  of  property  her  rights  are 
included  in  those  of  her  husband,  and  a  man 
cannot  sell  property  without  the  consent  of 
his  wife.  In  case  her  husband  is  dead  and  she 
has  no  son,  she  succeeds  to  the  property,  or 
may  sell  it  for  her  support,  if  she  is  poor. 
According  to  the  commercial  code  of  1903  "  a 
wife  or  a  daughter  above  the  age  of  sixteen 


WOMEN  99 

may  be  a  merchant,  and  may  use  her  own 
name  to  own  the  business.  A  wife  or  a 
daughter,  however,  must  register  as  a  merchant, 
either  directly  or  indirectly,  in  the  Department 
of  Agriculture,  Industry,  and  Commerce,  and  a 
wife  must  also  get  the  written  consent  of  her 
husband,  while  he  cannot  relieve  himself  from 
liability." 

Those  who  have  any  doubt  as  to  the  position 
and  character  of  the  Chinese  woman"  should 
take  into  consideration  these  important  facts  : 

i.  It  was  a  Chinese  woman,  contemporaneous 
with  the  Apostle  Paul,  that  wrote  the  first  book 
that  was  ever  written  anywhere  in  the  world 
for  the  instruction  of  girls — the  Lady  Tsao. 

2.  The  first  woman's  daily  newspaper  ever 
published  was  edited  and  published  in  Peking 
by  Mrs.  Chang. 

3.  During  the  Boxer  movement  in  1900  the 
girls  and  women  were  organized  as  the  Red 
Lantern  Society  to  inspire  and  encourage  the 
men  to  drive  out  the  foreigners  who  had  taken 
possession  of  all  their  principal  seaports. 

4.  When  the  rebellion  arose  against  the 
Manchus  the  girls  and  women  organized  them- 
selves into  companies,  clothed  themselves  in 
military  garb,  armed  themselves  with  western 
equipment,  and  called  themselves  the  "  Dare 
to  Dies." 

5.  Miss  Chin  Chi-lan,  an  actress,  was  be- 
headed by  the  Manchus  in  1911  for  spreading 
rebellion   among   the   people.     Miss   Chu   Chin 


100  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

was  arrested  and  tried  in  1908,  but  defended 
herself  in  a  paper  of  ten  pages.  Madam  Su, 
a  woman  of  sixty-five  years,  swayed  audiences 
of  no  less  than  1200  students  in  Tokio  by  her 
eloquence.  The  Misses  Wu  visited  both  London 
and  Tokio  in  the  interests  of  republican 
government  in  China.  Miss  Ying,  with  nine  of 
her  Red  Cross  nurses,  did  valuable  service  in 
the  rebel  army.     And  a  Japanese  writer  says  : 

"  Heaven  and  earth  know,  or  should  know, 
that   Mrs.    Conger's  estimate   of  the   Dowager 
Empress  is  much  nearer  the  truth  than  those 
horrid  nightmares,  fashioned  out  of  whole  cloth 
by  some  copy-manufacturing  newspaper  imagi- 
nation.    As  a  matter  of  fact  the  new  woman 
of   China   is  not  quite   new.     The  position  of 
women   among   the   Chinese  has   always  been 
high.     The  late  Empress  Dowager,  who  in  her 
time  received  a  deal  of  free  advertising  not  of 
the  kindliest  brand,  was  no  more  a  freak  and 
exception   among   the   Dowager   Empresses  of 
China  than  she  was  a  monster.     In  Japan  the 
abdication    of    a    sovereign    in    favour   of   his 
successor  has  been  common.     In  China  it  has 
rarely  occurred.     Naturally  during  the  minority 
of  the  reigning  sovereign  a  Dowager  Empress 
has   always   been   the  sovereign  de  facto,  and 
that  was  precisely  what  happened  to  the  late 
Dowager  Empress. 

"  Mr.  Okudo,  a  secretary  of  the  Japanese 
Legation  in  Peking,  made  a  study  of  the  com- 
mercial   and    social    life   of   China,   on   which 


/• 


* 


HSIAO   CH'ING'     LITTI.K    I'.RH'.HT.    THK    MMilM:    t.lkl. 


WOMEN  101 

subject  he  wrote  a  book.  He  says  that  petti- 
coat government  is  a  common  thing  in  China, 
that  the  position  of  her  women  is  higher  than 
that  of  her  Occidental  sisters.  China  is  a 
country  that  respects  and  values  her  women 
exceedingly,  a  country  whose  woman's  power 
is  strong.  Even  among  the  lower  classes  the 
husband  cannot  lay  a  violent  hand  upon  his 
wife,  and  the  matrimonial  quarrel  has  only  one 
end — that  in  which  the  wife  comes  off  the 
victor." 

The  Chinese  themselves,  under  the  energetic 
leadership  of  the  Princess  Kalachin,  have 
organized  a  club  called  Nil  tzu  tzu  chen  ch'ung 
shih  hui,  The  Women's  Mutual  Improvement 
Club,  for  the  discussion  of  questions  specially 
interesting  to  women.  No  foreigner  has  any- 
thing to  do  with  this  club.  Such  topics  as 
Opium,  Cigarette  Smoking,  Concubinage,  Foot- 
binding,  &c,  have  been  a  part  of  their  pro- 
gramme. Every  six  months  an  "At  Home  ' 
is  held,  to  which  is  invited  some  hundreds  of 
guests  of  many  nationalities.  The  Chinese 
ladies  carry  through  those  "  Literary,  Artistic, 
and  Musical  Conversaziones  "  entirely  without 
foreign  assistance. 

Those  who  think  that  the  women  take  no 
interest  in  government  affairs  should  remember 
that  when  the  men  cut  off  their  queues  many 
of  the  women  asserted  their  individuality  by 
adopting  new  styles  of  hairdressing  and  attire. 


CHAPTER   X 

HOUSEWIVES 

ONE  day  at  Shan-hai-kuan,  the  city  where 
|  the  Great  Wall  dips  into  the  eastern 
sea,  I  was  about  to  make  a  call  upon 
the  city  official  with  the  Rev.  Te  Jui.  We  sat 
in  his  home  and  talked  until  the  time  for  the 
visit  came.  He  was  dressed  in  an  ordinary 
blue  muslin  short  coat,  except  for  a  pair  of 
silk  over-trousers,  and  I  wondered  if  he  pro- 
posed to  go  calling  in  this  outfit.  His  wife,  a 
neat,  trim,  clean  housekeeper,  went  about  her 
duties  until  a  few  moments  before  the  hour 
for  us  to  start.  She  then  went  to  a  chest  and, 
without  saying  a  word  to  her  husband,  took 
out  a  number  of  garments  and  a  fan,  laid  them 
near  him,  opened  up  one  of  them,  and  held  it 
for  him  while  he  put  it  on,  without  breaking 
the  thread  of  our  conversation,  and  in  a  moment 
we  were  ready  to  start. 

She  did  not  ask  him  what  garment  he  would 
wear  ;  she  did  not  wait  to  be  asked  where  his 
garments  for  this  particular  occasion  were ; 
she  did  not  do  it  in  any  servile  way.  We  were 
in  her  realm.     She  did  it  as  though  she  was  the 

officer  in  charge  of  this  realm,  and  rather  than 

102 


HOUSEWIVES  103 

any  servility,  there  was  an  air  of  superiority 
in  all  her  movements,  and  it  added  a  touch  of 
refinement  to  her  and  her  home.  From  such  a 
home  a  husband  could  go  out  with  the  appear- 
ance of  a  man  of  dignity,  force,  and  power. 
This  is  one  phase  of  the  duties  and  responsi- 
bilities of  a  housewife  in  a  Chinese  home. 

Now  let  us  leave  this  common  home  of  a 
Christian  preacher,  a  typical,  well-kept  home  of 
the  middle  classes,  and  go  to  the  palace.  As 
spring  comes  on  in  North  China,  we  are  told  by 
the  Princess  Der  Ling,  "  The  young  Empress 
went  to  see  the  silkworms  and  watch  for  the 
eggs  to  be  hatched.  As  soon  as  they  were  out 
the  young  Empress  (the  present  Dowager) 
gathered  mulberry  leaves  for  the  worms  to 
feed  upon,  and  watched  them  until  they  were 
big  enough  to  commence  spinning.  Each  day 
a  fresh  supply  of  leaves  was  gathered,  and 
they  were  fed  four  or  five  times  daily.  Several 
of  the  court  ladies  were  told  off  to  feed  the 
worms  during  the  night,  and  see  that  they  did 
not  escape.  These  silkworms  grow  very  rapidly, 
and  we  could  see  the  difference  each  day.  Of 
course  when  they  became  full-grown  they  re- 
quired more  food,  and  we  were  kept  busy 
feeding  them.  The  young  Empress  was  able  to 
tell  by  holding  them  up  to  the  light  when  they 
were  ready  to  spin.  If  they  were  transparent 
they  were  ready,  and  were  placed  on  paper  and 
left  there.  When  spinning  the  silkworm  does 
not  eat,  therefore  all  that  we  had  to  do  was 


104  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

to  watch  that  they  did  not  get  away.  After 
spinning  for  four  or  five  days  their  supply  of 
silk  becomes  exhausted,  and  they  shrivel  up 
and  apparently  die.  They  were  then  collected 
by  the  young  Empress,  and  placed  in  a  box, 
where  they  were  kept  until  they  developed  into 
moths.  They  were  then  placed  on  thick  paper 
and  left  to  lay  their  eggs. 

"  If  left  to  themselves  the  silkworms,  when 
ready  for  spinning,  will  wind  the  silk  around 
their  bodies  until  they  are  completely  covered 
up,  gradually  forming  a  cocoon.  In  order  to 
determine  when  they  have  finished  spinning  it 
was  customary  to  take  the  cocoon  and  rattle 
it  near  the  ear.  If  the  worm  was  exhausted 
you  could  plainly  hear  it  rattle  inside  the 
cocoon.  The  cocoon  is  then  placed  in  boiling 
water  until  it  becomes  soft.  This,  of  course, 
kills  the  worm.  In  order  to  separate  the  silk 
a  needle  is  used  to  pick  up  the  end  of  the  thread, 
which  is  then  wound  on  a  spool  and  is  ready  for 
weaving.  A  few  of  the  cocoons  were  kept 
until  the  worms  had  turned  into  moths,  which 
soon  ate  their  way  out  of  the  cocoons  when  they 
were  placed  on  sheets  of  paper  and  left  to  lay 
their  eggs,  which  are  taken  away  and  kept  in 
a  cool  place  until  the  following  spring,  when  the 
eggs  are  hatched  and  become  worms.  All  this 
was  done  to  set  the  people  a  good  example, 
and  to  encourage  them  in  their  work." 

I  have  given  this  long  quotation  from  the 
Princess,  with  whom  I  am  acquainted,  because 


HOUSEWIVES  105 

it  is  the  first  description  that  has  ever  been 
given  by  an  eye-witness  and  participant  of 
this  royal  example  set  for  the  Chinese  house- 
wife. This  is  one  of  the  first  duties  of  every 
thrifty  housewife.  What  we  have  described 
as  taking  place  in  the  palace  may  be  seen 
in  the  early  springtime  in  millions  of  Chinese 
homes. 

One  of  the  first  requisites  of  life  is  clothing. 
The  Chinese  have  made  a  sharp  distinction 
between  the  duties  of  men  and  those  of  women 
in  supplying  this  necessity.  The  man  culti- 
vates the  field,  or  tends  the  flocks,  and  furnishes 
the  raw  material  in  the  way  of  flax,  hemp,  and 
skins,  while  the  business  of  the  women,  as  in 
the  case  of  our  own  ancestors,  is  to  spin  and 
weave  them  into  usable  form,  and  make  them 
into  garments.  But  in  the  case  of  the  silk- 
worm even  the  supply  of  raw  materials  is  a 
part  of  the  duty  of  the  thrifty  housewife. 

As  spring  arrives,  and  the  time  comes  for 
the  farmers  to  plant  their  crops,  the  Emperor 
goes  to  the  Temple  of  Agriculture,  where  he 
prays  for  a  good  harvest.  "  Then  he  proceeded 
to  a  small  plot  of  ground  situated  in  the  temple 
enclosure,  and  after  turning  the  earth  over 
with  a  plough,  he  sowed  the  first  seeds  of  the 
season.  This  was  to  show  the  farmers  that 
their  labours  were  not  despised,  and  that  even 
the  Emperor  was  not  ashamed  to  engage  in 
this  work.    Anybody  could  attend  this  cere- 


106  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

mony,  it  being  quite  a  public  affair,  and  many 
farmers  were  present." 

Now  let  us  enter  the  palace  again,  after  all 
the  harvests  have  been  gathered,  and  watch 
the  ceremonies  at  the  closing  of  the  year. 
"  The  next  thing  was  to  prepare  cakes,  which 
were  to  be  placed  before  the  Buddhas  and 
ancestors  during  the  New  Year.  It  was  neces- 
sary that  her  Majesty  (the  Great  Dowager) 
should  make  the  first  one  herself.  So  when  she 
decided  it  was  time  to  begin,  the  whole  court 
went  into  a  room  specially  prepared  for  the 
purpose,  and  the  eunuchs  brought  in  the 
ingredients — ground  rice,  sugar,  and  yeast. 
These  were  mixed  together  into  a  sort  of  dough 
and  then  steamed  instead  of  baked,  which 
caused  it  to  rise  just  like  ordinary  bread,  it 
being  believed  that  the  higher  the  cake  rises, 
the  better  pleased  are  the  gods  and  the  more 
fortunate  the  maker.  The  first  cake  turned 
out  fine,  and  we  all  congratulated  her  Majesty, 
who  was  evidently  much  pleased  herself  at 
the  result.  Then  she  ordered  each  of  the 
court  ladies  to  make  one,  which  we  did,  with 
disastrous  results,  not  one  turning  out  as  it 
should.  This  being  my  first  year  there  was 
some  excuse  for  my  failure,  but  I  was  surprised 
that  none  of  the  older  court  ladies  fared  any 
better,  and  on  inquiring  from  one  of  them  the 
reason,  she  replied  :  '  Why,  I  did  it  purposely, 
of  course,  so  as  to  flatter  her  Majesty's  vanity. 
Certainly  I  could  make  them  just  as  well  as  she, 


HOUSEWIVES  107 

if  not  better,  but  it  would  not  be  good  policy.' 
After  we  had  finished  making  our  cakes  the 
eunuchs  were  ordered  to  make  the  rest,  and 
needless  to  say  they  were  perfect  in  every  way. 

"The  next  thing  was  to  prepare  small  plates 
of  dates  and  fresh  fruits  of  every  kind,  which 
were  decorated  with  evergreens,  and  placed 
before  the  image  of  Buddha.  Then  we  pre- 
pared glass  dishes  of  candy,  which  were  to  be 
offered  to  the  God  of  the  Kitchen.  On  the 
twenty-third  day  of  the  last  moon  the  Kitchen 
God  left  this  earth  to  go  on  a  visit  to  the  King 
of  Heaven,  to  whom  he  reported  all  that  we 
had  been  doing  during  the  past  twelve  months, 
returning  to  earth  again  on  the  last  day  of  the 
year.  The  idea  of  offering  him  these  sweets 
was  in  order  that  they  should  stick  to  his 
mouth  and  prevent  him  from  telling  too  much. 
When  the  candies  were  prepared  we  all  ad- 
journed to  the  kitchen  and  placed  the  offering 
on  a  table  specially  prepared  for  the  purpose. 
Turning  to  the  head  cook  the  Empress  Dowager 
said  :  '  You  had  better  look  out  now  ;  the 
Kitchen  God  will  tell  how  much  you  have 
stolen  during  the  past  year,  and  you  will  be 
punished.'  " 

These  quotations  not  only  give  us  a  glimpse 
into  the  royal  home,  but  they  might  serve  as  a 
description  of  what  goes  on  in  practically  every 
home  in  China  about  New  Year's  time.  But 
the  chief  reason  why  I  have  given  them  is  to 
indicate   another   great   phase   of   the   Chinese 


108  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

social  structure.  The  man — the  farmer — pre- 
pares or  provides  a  second  great  necessity  of 
all  life — the  raw  material  for  food.  He  plants 
and  hoes  and  harvests — furnishes  all  the  grain 
and  vegetables  in  their  raw  state.  When  they 
are  brought  to  the  home  two  women  may  often 
be  seen  grinding  or  hulling  a  bit  of  corn  or 
wheat  or  millet,  and  preparing  it  for  domestic 
consumption. 

During  the  summer-time  it  is  expected  of 
the  women  that : 

"When    provisions   are   abundant,    think   of  when   they 
will  be  scant, 
And  prepare  in  time  of   plenty  for  a    future    time   of 
want." 

She  is  to  see  to  it  that  ducks  and  geese  and 
chickens  are  raised  in  great  numbers,  that  soy 
and  pickles  and  grain  fill  every  bin  and  crock, 
and  that : 

"Wife  and  husband  may  together  be  hilarious  with  joy." 

The  supposition  with  the  Chinese  is  that 
"  great  wealth  "  comes  from  the  competence  of 
the  men,  "  small  wealth  "  comes  through  the  dili- 
gence and  economy  of  the  household — that  a 
woman  can  throw  more  out  of  the  window  than 
a  man  can  bring  in  at  the  door,  and  that  a  man 
never  has  good  luck  who  has  a  bad  wife. 


CHAPTER  XI 

MOTHERHOOD 

THE  crowning  glory  of  a  woman  in  China  is 
motherhood.  In  spite  of  cares  for  the 
young,  in  spite  of  all  the  worries  over 
household  affairs,  in  spite  of  her  social  duties, 
and  above  all  desire  for  ease  and  pleasure,  a 
Chinese  woman  wants  to  be  a  mother.,  5  No  fear 
uf  danger  or  of  pain  could  deter  her — she  would 
rather  die  in  child-birth  than  live  in  barrenness 
and  ease.  Her  old  age  is  a  continuation  of 
motherhood,  when  she  rules  supreme  in  the 
family  in  the  absence  of  her  husband.  Her 
past  sufferings,  maternal  cares,  and  experiences, 
all  combine  to  make  her  a  matron,  obeyed  by 
her  children,  loved  by  her  grandchildren,  and 
respected  by  the  community. 

The  Great  Learning  tells  us  that  "  there  never 
has  been  a  girl  who  learned  to  nourish  a  child, 
that  she  might  afterwards  marry,"  the  implica- 
tion being  that  every  married  woman  must 
know  how  to  nourish  a  child  without  special 
training.  But  when  a  woman  marries  and  be- 
comes pregnant  she  is  put  into  the  school  of 
"  gestatory  education,"  if  such  it  may  be  called, 
in  order  that  she  may  be  able  to  impart  to  the 
child  a  proper  disposition  before  it  is  born. 

109 


110  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

According  to  the  Elder  Tai's  Record  of  Riles 
the  first  thing  in  gestatory  education  is  the 
choice  of  the  mother.  This  will  devolve  upon 
the  parents  in  the  choice  of  a  wife  for  their 
son.  They  should  select  her  from  among  those 
families  which  have  had  a  high  standard  of 
morality  for  many  generations.  There  are  five 
classes  of  women  who  should  not  be  taken  in 
marriage :  (i)  the  daughter  of  a  rebellious 
house  ;  (2)  the  daughter  of  a  disorderly  house  ; 
(3)  the  daughter  of  a  house  that  has  produced 
criminals  for  more  than  one  generation  ;  (4)  the 
daughter  of  a  leprous  house  ;  (5)  the  daughter 
who  has  lost  her  mother  and  has  grown  old. 

When  a  woman  becomes  pregnant  she  should 
separate  herself  from  her  husband  until  after 
the  birth  of  her  child,  and  this  is  the  under- 
lying principle  of  concubinage.  While  sleeping 
she  should  lie  on  her  back  ;  while  sitting  or 
standing  her  body  should  be  in  an  upright 
position,  and  the  weight  evenly  distributed. 
She  should  not  laugh  loudly.  She  should  not 
eat  food  of  bad  flavours,  nor  anything  that  is 
not  cut  properly.  To  eat  hashed-up  food  will 
give  a  careless  disposition  to  the  child,  as  it  is 
an  indication  of  a  careless  disposition  on  the 
part  of  the  mother.  She  should  not  sit  down 
on  a  mat  that  is  awry,  but  first  turn  it  square 
about,  for  the  same  reason  as  the  above.  Her 
eyes  should  not  see  bad  colours,  nor  should  she 
see  bad  sights,  nor  look  at  obscene  pictures. 
Her  ears  should  hear  no  obscene  sounds,  nor 


MOTHERHOOD  111 

should  she  gossip  or  listen  to  improper  con- 
versation. Her  mouth  should  utter  no  bad 
words,  and  she  should  be  careful  of  all  her 
language.  She  should  read  good  poetry,  and 
tell  good  stories,  and  when  about  to  retire  at 
night  she  should  call  in  blind  story-tellers,  and 
listen  to  beautiful  tales  from  them,  so  that 
while  sleeping  her  mind  may  dwell  upon  these 
things.  All  the  months  of  her  pregnancy  she 
must  be  watchful  of  the  things  by  which  her 
mind  is  affected,  and  keep  a  strict  guard  upon 
her  temper.  If  she  is  affected  by  good  things 
the  child  will  be  good  ;  if  by  bad  things  the 
child  will  be  bad.  If  she  is  careful  to  obey  these 
rules,  when  her  child  is  born  it  will  be  physically, 
mentally,  and  morally  in  a  perfect  condition. 
These  are  some  of  the  rules  of  gestatory  educa- 
tion. I  know  that  some  of  our  physiologists 
and  psychologists  are  opposed  to  the  theory 
that  any  mental  or  moral  bent  can  be  given 
to  a  child  during  the  period  of  its  gestation. 
To  such  I  would  say  that  I  am  not  advancing 
a  theory,  but  simply  giving  the  Chinese  modus 
operandi,  but  incidentally  I  do  not  hesitate  to 
say  that  I  would  rather  be  borne  by  a  mother 
who  had  followed  these  rules  than  by  one  who 
had  disregarded  them. 

For  some  years  after  the  child  is  born  it 
receives  its  impressions  almost  entirely  from 
its  mother,  or  from  the  members  of  its  own 
family  before  it  goes  to  school.  So  Confucius 
tells  us  that  "  When  a  child  is  trained  com- 


112  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

pletely,  his  education  is  just  as  strong  as  his 
nature,"  and  whatever  he  practises  perpetually 
he  will  do  naturally  as  a  permanent  habit. 

We  are  told  by  the  Pattern  of  the  Family  that 
"  the  son  of  the  great  official  has  a  nurse,  while 
the  wife  of  the  student  nourishes  her  child 
herself,"  and  I  am  told  that  this  condition  is 
very  prevalent  throughout  China  to-day.  Mr. 
Chen  Huan-Chang  says  that  "  the  wives  of 
students  and  common  people  must  nourish 
their  own  children,  although  the  empress,  the 
princesses,  and  the  noble  ladies  may  hire 
nurses." 


CHAPTER   XII 

CONCUBINAGE 

TO  understand  concubinage  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  understand  the  underlying  prin- 
ciple which  led  the  Chinese  to  adopt 
this  practice.  But  one  cannot  comprehend  the 
Chinese  character  in  this  particular  respect 
without  knowing  something  of  what  led  them 
to  introduce  such  a  practice  into  their  homes. 

What  we  have  said  in  another  chapter  on 
pre-natal  education  may  have  given  a  sug- 
gestion as  to  what  must  be  said  here.  The 
Chinese  believe  that  when  a  woman  becomes 
enceinte  she  should  separate  herself  from  her 
husband  until  after  the  birth  of  her  child,  in 
order  to  impart  a  pure  disposition  to  her  off- 
spring. And  Jndeed  may  she  not  have  reason 
for  such  a  belief  ?  Where  in  the  world  can 
you  find  another  female  mammal  that  will 
allow  any  such  associations  with  the  male 
during  the  gestation  of  her  young  ?  Indeed 
may  we  not  believe  that  the  story  of  the  fall 
of  man,  as  we  find  it  in  Genesis,  has  no  other 
interpretation  ?  They  knew  they  were  naked 
after  they  had  done  what  no  other  animal  would 

allow.     Cain  turned  out  a  murderer  as  a  result, 
8  113 


114  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

and  Abel  and  Seth  were  both  good  men,  and 
the  only  basis  upon  which  one  can  blame  the 
fall  upon  a  woman  is  that  she  is  the  only 
female  in  the  world  that  will  allow  such  liber- 
ties. And  it  was  allowing,  not  tempting,  that 
brought  on  her  the  blame.  However  this  may 
be  with  the  Hebrew  story,  the  Chinese  hold  this 
view,  and  in  order  to  satisfy  her  husband  and 
protect  herself,  she  gives  him  a  concubine 
during  this  period. 

While  the  custom  started  in  this  way,  be  it 
understood  that  we  do  not  pretend  to  say  that 
it  is  practised  for  this  same  reason.  The  more1 
hi  see  of  men  all  over  the  world  the  better  I  like 
nogs,  for  the  social  impurity  of  all  countries  is 
because  of  him  and  not  of  her.   l  • 

The  Chinese  woman  gives  a  concubine  to 
her  husband  just  as  Sarah  gave  her  maid  to 
Abraham,  and  sometimes,  as  we  shall  show, 
for  the  same  reason,  for  there  are  good,  pure 
homes  in  China  as  well  as  in  Europe  or  America. 
When  the  Chinese  ladies  hear  that  a  certain 
woman  is  about  to  give  a  concubine  to  her 
husband,  they  simply  say  of  her  that  she  is 
"  going  to  eat  vinegar."  And  that  in  a  large 
number  of  cases  is  what  it  is,  for  a  woman's 
trials  in  China  begin,  continue,  and  end  in 
the  home  among  the  women. 

One  day  the  head  eunuch  from  the  palace  of 
one  of  the  leading  Princes  of  Peking  was  calling 
at  our  home  to  request  Mrs.  Headland  to  go 
to  see  one  of  the  concubines  who  was  ill.     While 


CONCUBINAGE  115 

sitting  in  my  study,  gazing  at  the  picture  on 
the  wall,  and  thinking,  no  doubt,  of  the  things 
that  were  taking  place,  or  about  to  take  place, 
in  their  palace,  he  ejaculated  : 

"  Our  Prince  is  going  to  take  on  two  more 
concubines  at  Chinese  New  Year." 

I  turned  from  my  desk  where  I  was  writing 
and  exclaimed  : 

"  Doesn't  he  have  three  concubines  already  ?  ' 

"  Oh,  yes,  but  he  is  entitled  to  have  five." 

"  Doesn't  it  make  trouble  in  a  home  for  a 
man  to  have  so  many  women  around  ?  ' 

"  Ah,"  he  said,  with  that  peculiar  wave  of 
the  hand  that  only  a  Chinese  knows  how  to 
express,  "  that  is  a  matter  difficult  to  talk 
about.  Naturally  when  this  woman  sees  him 
talking  to  that  woman,  this  one  is  going  to  eat 
vinegar." 

And  she  does. 

Mrs.  Headland  went  with  him  to  their  palace 
to  see  the  concubine,  but,  of  course,  was  taken 
at  once  to  the  apartments  of  the  Princess,  who 
had  full  control  of  all  the  affairs  of  the  women. 
The  Princess  took  her  to  see  the  concubine. 
As  they  entered  the  room  they  noticed  an  old 
nurse  with  a  little  girl  in  her  arms  with  a  blotch 
on  her  face. 

Now  a  blemish  on  a  little  girl  in  China  does 
as  much  to  disfigure  her  as  it  would  a  little  girl 
in  any  other  country.  On  a  boy  it  would  not 
matter,  for  a  man  with  a  bald  head  can  marry 
any  woman  he  could  marry  without  a  bald  head. 


116  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

But   a  woman   with   a  bald  head  is   quite   a 
different  proposition. 

And  so  the  Princess  asked  if  it  could  be 
removed. 

The  doctor  examined  it,  and  answered  that 
it  could  by  a  slight  operation.  Now  "  opera- 
tion "  in  Chinese  is  la,  "  to  cut,"  and  the  nurse, 
thinking  that  the  child  was  about  to  be  seriously 
cut,  stole  away  while  the  doctor  was  examining 
the  patient,  and  another  nurse  with  another 
child  entered  the  room. 

In  examining  the  concubine  the  doctor  talked 
with  the  Princess,  who  interpreted  it  to  the 
concubine,  though  the  latter  understood  her 
as  well  as  the  Princess  did.  Then  the  con- 
cubine talked  with  the  Princess,  who  inter- 
preted to  the  doctor,  though  she  understood 
the  concubine  as  well  as  she  did  the  Princess. 
When  the  concubine  had  been  attended  to  the 
Princess  turned  to  the  nurse  and  said  : 

"  Bring  the  child  here  and  let  the  doctor  take 
the  spot  off  its  face." 

"  But,"  said  the  nurse,  "  this  is  not  the  same 
child." 

"  There,"  said  the  Princess  with  a  sigh  and  a 
smile.  "  You  see  I  do  not  know  my  own 
children  !  "  for  all  the  children  of  her  husband,, 
no  matter  by  whom  borne,  belong  to  the  wife 
and  call  her  "  mother,"  while  they  call  their  own 
mother  "  nurse." 

What  we  have  just  given  might  be  taken  as  a 
fair  sample  of  the  home  with  concubines  ;    we 


CONCUBINAGE  117 

wish  now  to  describe  two  others,  both  homes 
of  the  highest  class  of  people,  for  only  those  who 
are  wealthy  can  afford  this  luxury,  as  is  indicated 
by  this  story  told  me  by  Sir  Robert  Hart  : 

"  One  day,"  said  he,  "  the  newly-appointed 
minister  to  the  Court  of  St.  James's  came  to 
call  upon  me  before  starting  upon  his  journey. 
After  talking  for  some  time  he  said  : 

"  '  I  believe  it  is  proper  in  calling  on  a  foreign 
gentleman  to  see  his  lady.  I  should  be  very 
glad  to  pay  my  respects  to  Lady  Hart.' 

" '  I  should  be  very  glad  to  have  you  do  so, 
but  Lady  Hart  is  in  England  educating  our 
children.  I  have  not  seen  her  myself  for  many 
years.' 

"'Ah,'  said  he,  '  then  I  should  be  very  glad 
to  see  your  second  wife.' 

"  '  And  I  should  be  very  glad  to  have  you  see 
her  if  I  had  one,  but  my  miserable  country 
will  not  allow  us  to  have  a  second  wife — indeed 
they  would  imprison  us  if  we  had  one.' 

|"  '  Oh,  indeed,'  he  continued, '  your  honourable 
country  does  not  appreciate  the  advantages 
of  some  of  the  customs  of  my  miserable 
country.'  " 

The  first  incident  I  am  about  to  relate 
happened  in  the  home  of  a  Chinese  friend  who 
lived  very  near  me  in  Peking.  If  I  had  been 
selecting  from  among  all  my  friends  a  scholar 
and  a  Chinese  gentleman,  I  should  have  selected 
him,  and  I  would  never  have  suspected  that 
this  could  have  happened  in  his  home.  ' 


118  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

His  wife  discovered  that  one  of  her  slave 
girls  was  in  a  condition  in  which  she  should 
not  be,  and  on  inquiry  she  discovered  that  her 
husband  was  the  cause  of  this  irregularity. 
Not  wishing  to  create  a  disturbance  or  reveal 
her  disgrace,  she  decided  secretly  to  give  the 
slave  girl  away  to  anyone  who  would  accept 
her.  When  her  husband  learned  what  she 
was  about  to  do  he  objected,  and  there  was  a 
family  disturbance.  Not  such  a  row  as  would 
occur  among  the  uncultured  or  unrefined,  but 
a  dispute  such  as  might  occur  in  refined  society 
anywhere  in  the  world.  There  was  a  difference 
of  opinion.  She  proposed  to  give  the  girl  away, 
he  decided  that  she  should  not.  The  strife 
became  bitter.  He  had  invaded  her  realm 
without  her  consent,  which  is  contrary  to  all 
Chinese  customs  in  the  matter  of  concubinage. 
When  they  could  not  settle  the  difficulty 
themselves  he  called  in  another  of  our  mutual 
friends,  one  of  my  former  pupils,  to  shuo  ho 
(make  peace).  For  three  days  this  young  man 
went  from  husband  to  wife,  and  from  wife  to 
husband,  to  try  to  induce  them  to  compromise. 
Finally  he  said  to  the  man  :  "  There  is  no  use 
of  my  remaining  here  any  longer.  You  will 
not  relax,  she  will  not  relent.  I  can  do  nothing 
for  you  ;   I  am  going  home." 

"  No,  you  must  not  go  home  ;  go  to  her 
again — she  must  give  in." 

After  other  fruitless  efforts  to  induce  them  to 
yield  he  stole  away,  and  I  have  never  learned 


CONCUBINAGE  119 

how  the  matter  was  settled.  No  one  but  them- 
selves know.  She  was  the  daughter  of  the 
governor  of  a  province,  and  he  one  of  the 
finest  scholars  in  the  country,  a  Hanlin  or 
LL.D.,  as  well  as  a  Censor,  or  adviser  to  the 
Emperor. 

In  China  that  woman,  refined,  cultured,  of 
gentle  birth,  has  no  appeal  to  the  law.  '  She 
must  give  in."  In  Europe  or  America  she 
could  obtain  a  divorce,  not  so  in  China.  There 
are  seven  reasons  why  a  man  may  divorce  his 
wife  in  China  : 

i.  Disobedience  to  parents-in-law. 

2.  Not  giving  birth  to  a  son. 

3.  Adultery. 

4.  Jealousy  of  her  husband's  attentions  to 
other  inmates  of  his  harem. 

5.  Leprosy. 

6.  Talkativeness. 

7.  Thieving. 

But  there  are  three  considerations  which  may 
overrule  these  grounds : 

1.  Having  no  family  to  return  to. 

2.  Having  passed  through  the  three  years' 
mourning  for  his  parents. 

3.  Having  married  her  when  he  was  poor, 
and  now  having  become  rich. 

But  in  the  whole  Confucian  writings,  and  in 
all  the  laws  of  China,  there  is  no  provision  for 
a  woman  to  obtain  a  divorce  from  her  husband, 
except  with  his  consent,  which  is  tantamount 
to  his  obtaining  the  divorce  from  her. 


120  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

My  last  incident  of  concubinage  was  one 
which  occurred  in  the  palace  of  another  of  the 
Princes  in  Peking.  Now  it  happened  that 
this  Princess  was  the  mother  of  three  girls 
without  any  boys.  In  their  simplicity  they 
supposed  that  there  was  something  wrong  with 
her,  and  that  she  could  not  have  male  children. 
A  discussion  arose  between  her  and  her  husband, 
and,  in  order  to  settle  the  matter,  she  gave  him 
her  maid,  as  Sarah  did  Abraham,  in  the  hope 
that  they  might  have  a  son  who  would  be  heir 
to  their  principality.  It  so  happened  that  the 
maid  also  had  a  daughter.  "  Ha,"  she  ex- 
claimed, '  it  is  not  my  fault  at  all,  it  is  your 
own  fault,"  and  the  maid  had  no  more  children. 

In  due  time  the  Princess  gave  birth  to  another 
child  and  it  was  a  daughter,  and  she  was  more 
than  ever  convinced  that  the  fault  lay  in  her 
husband  and  not  in  herself. 

When  the  maid's  little  girl  was  about  eight 
years  old  she  fell  ill  with  diphtheria.  Some 
days  later  the  youngest  daughter  of  the  Princess 
also  fell  ill,  and  then  they  sent  for  Mrs.  Head- 
land. As  soon  as  she  saw  the  children  she  told 
the  Princess  what  the  matter  was,  and  that 
she  must  hurry  home  and  get  antitoxin  with 
which  to  treat  them. 

"  That  medicine  is  very  expensive,  is  it 
not  ?  "  for  it  was  expensive  at  that  time  in 
Peking. 

Mrs.  Headland  answered  that  it  was. 


CONCUBINAGE  121 

"  Could  you  not  get  a  cheaper  grade  for  the 
maid's  child  ?  "  she  inquired. 

"  I  can/'  answered  my  wife,  "  but  I  would 
not  advise  doing  so." 

"  You  get  the  cheaper  grade  for  her,"  the 
Princess  ordered. 

The  Prince  sat  near  by  listening  to  all  this 
conversation  without  saying  a  word.  He  was 
a  good  Prince,  she  was  a  good  Princess,  and  the 
maid  was  a  good  maid.  He  was  in  her  realm, 
and  he  had  nothing  to  say. 

Mrs.  Headland  hurried  home,  got  the  medi- 
cine, and  was  changing  her  clothing,  prepara- 
tory to  going  and  remaining  night  and  day 
with  the  children,  for  she  feared  for  the  maid's 
little  girl,  when  the  Prince  with  his  outriders 
drove  pell-mell  into  our  back  gate.  He  came 
into  my  study  and  talked  for  a  few  moments, 
though  I  saw  that  he  seemed  to  be  excited, 
and  after  a  very  short  time  he  asked  : 

"  Is  Mrs.  Headland  at  home  ?  " 

"  She  is  just  now  preparing  to  go  to  your 
excellency's  palace,"  I  answered. 

"  I  would  like  to  speak  with  her  before  she 
goes,"  he  said. 

I  called  my  wife  to  speak  to  him,  and  she 
told  me  later  that  he  said  : 

"  Mrs.  Headland,  I  heard  the  Princess  tell 
you  to  get  a  cheaper  grade  of  antitoxin  for 
the  maid's  little  girl  than  you  get  for  her  own. 
Now,  you  get  the  same  grade,  but  say  nothing 


122  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

about  it :  just  send  the  bill  to  me  and  I  will 
pay  it." 

Mrs.  Headland  did  so,  but  in  spite  of  all  she 
could  do,  the  maid's  little  girl  died. 

Now  a  maid  has  a  heart  the  same  as  a 
Princess,  and  this  maid  was  heartbroken  at  the 
death  of  her  only  daughter.  As  I  have  said, 
the  Prince  was  a  good  Prince,  the  Princess  a 
good  Princess,  and  the  maid  a  good  maid,  and 
the  Princess  allowed  her  to  have  another  child — 
and  it  was  a  boy — and  you  never  saw  a  happier 
Princess  than  she  was  that  they  had  finally 
secured  an  heir  to  their  principality. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

RELIGION 

WHEN  a  missionary  or  tourist  returns 
from  the  Orient,  one  of  the  questions 
that  is  commonly  asked  him  is :  "  Are 
those  Asiatics  religious  ?  "  Are  they  religious  ? 
They  are  nothing  but  religious.  They  eat  their 
religion,  they  sleep  their  religion,  they  walk 
their  religion,  they  talk  their  religion,  they  work 
their  religion,  they  carry  on  their  business  in 
a  religious  way.  They  have  a  shrine  in  every 
kitchen,  in  every  home,  in  every  shop,  in  every 
factory  ;  even  on  the  housetops  and  in  the 
gateways  they  have  shrines.  Little  shrines 
stand  by  the  roadside,  where  the  traveller,  as 
he  trudges  wearily  on  his  journey,  may  stop 
for  a  moment  and  offer  a  bit  of  incense  to  a 
dilapidated  idol.  They  have  shrines  by  the 
wells,  where  they  may  worship  as  they  draw 
water.  They  have  shrines  carved  on  the  solid 
granite  of  the  mountain-side,  and  caves  cut 
out  of  the  rock,  where  some  devotee  has  spent 
years  with  his  simple  instruments,  drilling  and 
chipping,  until  he  finds  and  leaves  an  idol  on 
the  face  of  his  cavern  a  dozen  feet  beneath 
the  surface.  Are  they  religious  ?  Are  you 
religious  ? 

123 


124  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

|Has  it  ever  occurred  to  you  that  every  re- 
ligion that  the  world  has  ever  made  that  has 
been  worth  propagating,  was  made  by  the 
Asiatic  ?  Where  are  the  religions  made  by 
your  ancestors,  Greek,  Roman,  Teuton,  Slav, 
Norman,  Anglo-Saxon  ?  Only  the  Asiatics  have 
been,  and  for  that  matter  are,  religious.  The 
Jew  is  religious,  you  are  not.  The  Hindoo  is 
religious,  you  are  not.  The  Mohammedan  is 
religious,  you  are  not.  Begin  to  talk  religion 
to  an  American  or  European  business  man,  and 
he  closes  up  like  a  clam.  Why  ?  You  are 
talking  about  something  he  knows  nothing 
about.  Talk  to  a  Hindoo,  a  Mohammedan,  or 
a  Jew — not  an  Americanized  or  Europeanized 
Jew,  but  an  Asiatic  Jew — and  he  will  talk 
religion  as  he  takes  his  food.  You  are  not 
religious — you  are  intellectual — and  the  type  of 
your  civilization  is  material,  while  his  is  moral 
or  religious.  You  seek  for  the  means  of 
living,  he  seeks  for  the  end  of  life.  You 
think  in  terms  of  atoms,  molecules,  corpuscles, 
microbes,  bacteria,  electrons ;  he  thinks  in 
terms  of  eternity,  infinity,  right,  duty,  gods, 
demons.  You  make  sciences,  he  makes 
religions. 

One  day  as  I  came  along  the  street  of  Peking 
I  saw  a  Buddhist  priest,  boxed  up  in  a  little 
four-by-four  shanty,  with  a  piece  of  iron  a  foot 
long  and  two-fifths  of  an  inch  in  diameter — 
about  the  size  of  an  ordinary  poker — stuck 
through   his   two   cheeks   and   his   mouth,    to 


RELIGION  125 

induce  the  people  to  contribute  money  for  the 
support  of  his  temple,  and  for  repairs. 

You  ask,  Are  the  Chinese  religious  ?  I  answer, 
No,  not  as  the  Jew  and  the  Hindoo  are  religi- 
ous. So  far  as  I  can  discover  (and  I  have 
studied  the  matter  for  almost  a  quarter  of  a 
century) ,  the  Chinese  have  never  made  a  religion 
of  their  own,  nor  an  idol  to  worship.  Their] 
two  native  systems — Taoism  and  Confucianism,! 
with  Moism — are  simply  systems  of  morality, 
in  which  they  try  to  discover  man's  relation 
to  man  in  government,  in  society,  in  business, 
in  the  family  ;  and  they  neither  manufactured 
nor  worshipped  idols  until  the  Emperor  Ming 
Ti,  about  a.d.  65,  introduced  Buddhism  from 
India.  The  Chinese  are,  therefore,  moralists, 
and  be  it  said  to  their  credit  that  they  have 
developed  the  biggest  (observe,  I  do  not  say 
the  best)  moral  system  the  world  has  ever 
known,  and  so  the  two  oldest  governments  in 
the  world  to-day  are  the  result  of  Confucianism. 
.  But  all  men  are  religious,  and  so  the  Chinese 
are.  All  men  have  reason  and  an  intellectual 
nature  which  links  them  with  things  ;  a  con- 
science and  a  moral  nature  which  links  them  with 
their  fellow-men  ;  and  faith  and  a  religious 
nature  which  links  them  with  God.  And  when 
psychologists  begin  to  study  man,  mind,  self, 
in  this  threefold  way,  psychology  will  begin  to 
be  a  science — not  till  then. 

The  Chinese  are  religious,  but  not  like  the 
Hindoos.     The  Chinese  disposition  to  worship — 


126  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

his  religious  nature — has  been  largely  misdirected 
toward  his  fellow-men.  He  worships  his  an- 
cestors, but  of  this  we  will  speak  in  another 
chapter.  But  the  want  of  a  native  religion 
gave  Buddhism  its  opportunity,  and  between 
the  first  and  the  sixth  centuries  it  was  estab- 
lished all  over  the  empire. 

But  now  a  non-scientific  people  cannot 
understand  the  laws  and  forces  of  nature,  and 
attribute  them  to  spirits,  gods,  or  demons. 
And  so  the  Chinese,  after  the  introduction  of 
Buddhism,  began  to  substitute  idols,  by  the 
worship  of  which  they  hoped  to  avoid  the 
calamities  of  nature's  laws  or  their  own  neglect. 
It  never  occurred  to  the  Oriental  that  cholera, 
or  any  of  the  great  Asiatic  plagues,  is  the  result 
of  dirt,  and  so  they  make  an  image  and  worship 
that  to  avoid  the  disease. 

In  a  village  near  our  North  China  summer 
resort,  during  August  of  1905,  the  cholera  ap- 
peared, and  the  people  worshipped  the  idols, 
even  going  to  the  extent  of  celebrating  their 
New- Year's  festival,  which  does  not  occur  until 
January  or  February,  in  the  hope  that  they 
might  pacify,  cajole,  or  deceive  the  god  into 
leaving  the  village.  But  all  to  no  purpose. 
Finally  they  made  a  paper  image  and  carried 
it  over  to  the  European  settlement  of  our 
summer  resort,  where  they  left  it.  It  so  hap- 
pened that  a  gentleman  had  been  brought  from 
Tang  Shan  ill  the  day  before,  and  about  the 
time  the  image  was  brought  from  the  village 


RELIGION  127 

he  died,  and  the  people  were  convinced  that 
they  had  hit  upon  the  right  idea. 

The  cholera  was  rife  throughout  the  whole 
country,  and  people  were  dying  by  the  hundreds. 
One  of  the  young  men  from  another  village 
was  calling  at  our  house,  and  I  said  to  him  : 

"  How  is  the  plague  in  your  village  ?  " 

"  We  have  had  no  plague,"  he  replied. 

"  How  is  that  ?  "  I  inquired. 

"  Well,"  said  he,  "  our  village  elders  clean 
out  our  village  well  every  spring,  and  then 
wrap  up  a  big  package  of  medicine  in  lotus 
leaves,  and  put  it  in  the  well,  and  we  never  have 
cholera." 

"  And  why  don't  the  others  do  that  ?  "  I 
inquired. 

"  Who  knows  ?  "  was  his  only  answer. 

The  kinds  of  worship  in  China  are  so  numer- 
ous that  we  can  only  name  a  part  of  them  here. 
In  the  first  place,  there  is  the  worship  of  the 
Emperor,  who  is  the  parent  of  the  people,  and 
does  worship  at  the  Temple  of  Heaven,  the 
Temple  of  Earth,  the  Temple  of  the  Sun,  and 
the  Temple  of  the  Moon,  as  well  as  the  Temple 
of  Agriculture.  These  are  five  great  national 
temples.  The  Temple  of  Heaven  has  two 
altars,  the  open  and  the  covered  altars,  both  in 
a  large  enclosure,  occupying  almost  a  square 
mile  of  the  southern  city  of  Peking.  The 
covered  altar  is  the  most  beautiful  piece  of 
architecture  in  China — a  triple-roofed  circular 
dome  over  an  altar  about  ninety  feet  in  dia- 


128  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

meter,  covered  with  blue  encaustic  tiles,  each 
made  to  fit  its  place,  though  made  a  thousand 
miles  away. 

The  open  altar  has  three  terraces,  of  white 
marble,  and  is  the  most  sublime  conception  I 
know  of  anywhere  in  the  world — a  circular 
altar,  ninety-nine  feet  in  diameter,  with  three 
tiers  of  nine  steps  each,  on  the  east,  west, 
north,  and  south,  leading  from  the  ground  to  the 
top  terrace.  In  the  centre  of  this  top  terrace  is 
a  circular  stone,  around  which  are  nine  circles 
of  stones,  of  9,  18,  27,  36,  45,  &c,  to  81,  or 
9  times  9  in  the  outer  circle.  When  the 
Emperor  kneels  on  the  round  stone  in  the 
centre,  at  sunrise,  there  is  nothing  to  cover 
him  but  the  dome  of  the  heavens  while  he  prays 
to  Shang  Ti — the  Emperor  Above — or  the  God 
of  the  Universe.  There  are  no  idols,  no  images, 
no  pictures,  nothing  but  the  Emperor  and  his 
God. 

In  another  chapter  we  have  referred  to  the 
worship  at  the  Temple  of  Agriculture.  Similar 
worship  is  done  at  the  temples  of  the  Earth, 
Sun,  and  Moon.  These  are  situated — the  Earth 
to  the  north  of  Peking,  the  Sun  at  the  east, 
the  Moon  at  the  west,  and  the  Temple  of 
Agriculture  in  the  southern  city,  opposite  the 
Temple  of  Heaven.  Each  has  a  great  open 
altar,  surrounded  by  groves  of  cedar,  in  which 
are  located  the  various  buildings  which  contain 
the  ancestral  tablets  or  other  fixtures  for  the 
altar  during  worship. 


_«..--. 


A^B%* 


A   SAGE    IN    WINTKK 


RELIGION  129 

Next  to  the  imperial  worship  comes  that 
done  by  the  officials.  This  is  at  the  Confucian 
temple.  Here,  as  in  the  other  temples,  at 
certain  seasons  the  officials  offer  sheep  and 
pigs,  as  cattle  are  offered  at  the  Temple  of 
Heaven.  This  worship  is  done  only  by  the 
officials  and  scholars. 

Next  comes  the  worship  at  the  Buddhist 
temples,  where  men  or  women  at  any  time  may 
go  and  burn  a  bit  of  incense,  and  offer  a  prayer 
to  whatever  particular  idol  one  feels  inclined 
to  invoke.  Here  we  find  the  Three  Precious 
Ones,  the  Goddess  of  Mercy  (whom  some  think 
is  an  adaptation  of  the  Virgin  Mary),  the 
Goddess  that  gives  children  (to  whom  the 
childless  wife  often  prays  with  all  earnestness 
for  years  to  no  avail),  or  any  one  of  ten  thou- 
sand other  bits  of  clay  or  wood  or  gilded  bronze. 
The  mountains  are  filled  with  these  temples, 
which  we  shall  have  occasion  to  mention  under 
"  Summer  Resorts,"  though  to  some  of  these 
temples,  such  as  Wu  Tai  Shan,  or  Tai  Shan, 
tens  of  thousands  of  men  and  women  make 
long  pilgrimages  every  year.  I  have  seen 
them  going  hundreds  of  miles,  measuring  their 
length  on  the  dusty  road  at  every  third  step. 
As  they  near  the  temple,  passing  up  the 
mountain  side,  they  purchase  great  staffs  which 
they  carry  back  to  their  homes. 

After    this    we    have    the    special    kinds    of 
worship    for    illness,    for    special    sorrows,    for 
childlessness,   for  deliverance  from  plague,  or 
9 


130  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

at  wells,  at  shrines,  at  trees  that  have  ch'eng 
shen,  become  divine  on  account  of  their  age ; 
or  they  worship  the  fox  or  the  dragon. 

In  every  kitchen,  as  we  have  indicated  in 
another  chapter,  they  have  the  Kitchen  God, 
which  they  worship  at  the  New  Year.  In  every 
home  they  have  their  ancestral  tablets,  which  we 
will  have  occasion  to  refer  to  under  "Ancestral 
Worship,"  while  every  shop,  or  store,  or  factory, 
however  large  or  small,  has  its  God  of  Wealth, 
and  of  all  the  gods  that  of  the  Kitchen  and  of 
Wealth  are  worshipped  with  most  devotion. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

FAMILY   CEREMONIES 

A  MONG  the  most   interesting  family   cere- 
/-\     monies   are   those   connected   with    the 
*    *■  New  Year,  the  birth  of  a  child,  birth- 
days, feast  days,  and  the  various  festivals. 

We  have  already  described  on  page  107  the 
attentions  paid  to  the  Kitchen  God  in  the 
palace.  This  is  done  with  various  modifica- 
tions throughout  the  whole  empire.  On  the 
twenty-third  of  the  last  moon,  seven  days 
before  the  New  Year,  the  people  prepare  dishes 
of  candy,  and  place  it  before  the  Kitchen  God, 
whom  they  then  proceed  to  worship.  Then 
they  smear  his  mouth  with  sweets  of  various 
kinds,  depending  upon  whether  they  are  in 
the  city  or  the  country,  in  the  north,  centre,  or 
south,  after  which  they  burn  him,  and,  amid 
the  firing  off  of  crackers,  this  deity  of  the 
culinary  department  is  sent  up  in  a  chariot 
of  smoke  and  fire  to  a  conference  with  the 
king  of  the  celestial  regions.  The  idea  of 
smearing  his  mouth  with  sweets  is  that  he 
might  not  say  anything  but  honeyed  words, 
or  that  his  lips  may  stick  together  and  so 
prevent  his  talking  too  much.     This  is  a  habit 

131 


132  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

a  Chinese  has  in  dealing  with  all  kinds  of  con- 
ditions. He  will  give  presents  to  a  person 
from  whom  he  expects  to  ask  a  favour  until  he 
puts  them  under  such  obligations  that  they 
find  it  difficult  to  refuse. 

From  this  time  until  the  end  of  the  year 
business  men  are  doing  everything  in  their 
power  to  get  money  to  pay  off  all  their  debts, 
for  a  Chinese  cannot  pass  over  the  year  (kuo 
nien)  until  all  his  obligations  are  paid  or  pro- 
vided for,  a  system  which  I  would  commend  to 
our  friends  of  the  West. 

In  all  homes,  or  if  not  in  the  homes,  from 
all  bakeries,  the  people  bake  or  buy  small  cakes, 
made  of  rice,  flour,  and  sugar,  which,  with  fruit 
and  dates,  they  put  on  plates,  and  place  before 
the  image  of  Buddha.  This  is  the  one  time 
of  the  year  when  everybody  is  religious.  New 
door-gods  are  pasted  upon  the  doors.  These 
consist  of  coloured  prints  of  the  reputed  like- 
nesses of  two  great  warriors  of  ancient  times, 
who  were  supposed  to  be  defenders  not  only 
of  the  country  but  of  the  home.  Fresh  mottoes 
are  written  on  strips  of  red  paper,  and  pasted 
upon  the  door-posts  and  gate-posts  ;  and  on 
the  wall  across  the  street,  just  opposite  the 
front  gate,  is  a  strip  of  red  paper  on  which  is 
written  Ch'u  men  chien  hsi,  "  As  you  go  out  of 
the  gate  may  you  meet  happiness." 

For  a  week  at  New  Year's  time  all  shops  are 
closed,  and  for  two  weeks  all  shops  that  can 
afford  it  do  not  open  their  doors.     Some  have 


FAMILY    CEREMONIES  133 

a  small  square  opening  in  the  door,  much  like 
the  "  General  Delivery  "  in  a  post-office,  through 
which  they  serve  customers  who  must  have 
provisions.  Some  have  bands  of  music  which 
keep  up  a  constant  entertainment  throughout 
the  day  and  long  into  the  night.  New  Year's 
eve  and  night  is  a  pandemonium  of  fire-crackers 
and  calls  and  barking  of  dogs,  while  the  first 
day  of  the  year  the  streets  are  deserted,  with 
wrappers  of  bursted  crackers  scattered  all  about, 
and  it  is  the  only  day  of  all  the  year  that  looks 
like  Sunday.  The  people  are  either  feasting  or 
sleeping  in  their  homes — probably  both.  The 
second  night  there  are  more  crackers,  but  only 
during  the  early  part  of  the  night,  and  the  next 
day  they  begin  their  New  Year's  calls.  This 
calling  is  kept  up  for  a  week  or  ten  days,  during 
which  time  every  man  who  possesses  one,  or 
who  can  afford  it,  rents  a  beautiful  garment  and 
hat,  and  goes  to  wish  his  friends  a  "  happy 
New  Year." 

This  is  the  time  also  when  everybody  who 
can  afford  it  sends  a  present  to  all  his  friends — 
it  is  the  Christmas  season  of  present-giving 
in  China.  And  the  same  thing  occurs  there  as 
here,  as  is  indicated  by  the  following  para- 
graph from  the  Princess  Der  Ling  : 

"  The  court  ladies  also  exchanged  presents 
among  themselves,  which  often  led  to  con- 
fusion and  amusement.  On  this  occasion  I 
had  received  some  ten  or  a  dozen  different 
presents,  and  when  it  came  my  turn  to  give 


134  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

something,  I  decided  to  use  some  of  the 
presents  I  had  received  from  my  companions. 
To  my  surprise,  the  next  day  I  received  from 
one  of  the  court  ladies  an  embroidered  hand- 
kerchief which  I  recognized  as  the  identical 
handkerchief  I  had  myself  sent  her  as  my  New 
Year's  present.  On  mentioning  the  fact,  this 
ladv  turned  and  said  :  '  Well  that  is  rather 
funny.  I  was  just  wondering  what  had  made 
you  return  the  shoes  I  sent  you.'  Of  course 
everybody  laughed  very  heartily,  and  still 
further  merriment  was  caused  when,  on  com- 
paring all  the  presents,  it  was  found  that  quite 
half  of  us  had  received  back  our  own  presents. 
In  order  to  settle  the  matter,  we  threw  them 
all  into  a  heap  and  divided  them  as  evenly 
as  possible,  everybody  being  satisfied  with  the 
result."  Aren't  they  a  tremendously  human 
lot  of  folks  ? 

On  the  morning  of  the  last  day  of  the  year 
the  people  worship  their  ancestors  and  the 
Buddhas,  and  on  New  Year's  Day  they  worship 
the  God  of  Wealth  for  having  brought  them 
safely  through  another  year.  A  Westerner 
cannot  understand  the  importance  that  an 
Oriental,  held  in  the  clutches  of  poverty, 
attaches  to  "  passing  over  the  year." 

The  New  Year  celebration  usually  ends  with 
the  Feast  of  Lanterns  on  the  fifteenth  day  of 
the  first  moon.  I  wish  I  could  take  my 
readers  down  Lantern  Street  in  Peking  between 
the  first  and  fifteenth  and  let  them  have  a  view 


FAMILY    CEREMONIES  135 

of  the  shops.  Lanterns  of  all  sizes  and  de- 
scriptions are  displayed  for  sale.  Some  repre- 
sent animals,  some  flowers,  some  fruit,  some 
in  the  shape  of  dragons,  all  made  of  cotton  or 
silk  gauze,  painted  in  the  most  gorgeous  and 
beautiful  colours  at  the  command  of  the 
artists.  Some  of  these  lanterns  are  really 
works  of  art,  and  are  very  expensive.  Artists 
have  been  working  for  months  getting  ready 
for  this  feast.  Sometimes  one  sees  a  lantern 
in  the  form  of  a  dragon  ten  to  fifteen  feet  long, 
carried  on  ten  or  a  dozen  poles,  with  some- 
one going  in  front  with  another  in  the  form 
of  a  pearl  which  the  dragon  seeks  to  devour. 

The  fireworks  at  New  Year's  time  are  just 
for  noise,  but  during  the  feast  of  lanterns  they 
have  beautiful  displays  of  fireworks.  They  re- 
present scenes  in  Chinese  history,  mythological 
tales,  grape  vines,  wisteria  blossoms,  and  all 
kinds  of  flowers.  This  is  in  some  respects  the 
most  beautiful  festival  of  the  year. 

After  this  comes  the  spring  festival  of 
ploughing  and  planting,  and  the  rearing  of 
silkworms,  which  we  have  described  elsewhere, 
and  which  need  not  be  repeated  here.  Almost 
every  month  has  its  festivals.  On  the  third  of 
the  third  moon  the  fairies  come  to  visit  their 
votaries.  On  the  fifth  of  the  fifth  moon  is  the 
Dragon  Boat  festival,  in  memory  of  one  of  the 
patriotic  officials  of  ancient  times,  who  threw 
himself  into  the  river  because  he  failed  to  save 
his  prince,  since  which  time  the  Chinese  wrap 


136  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

rice  in  corn  blades  and  throw  it  into  the  river. 
The  people  eat  these  balls  of  rice  at  this  season. 

On  the  seventh  of  the  seventh  moon  they 
celebrate  the  festival  of  the  two  stars,  Nin 
Lang,  the  Cow-herd,  a  large  star  in  Capricorn, 
and  Chih  Nii,  the  Spinning  Maiden,  a  Lyra, 
who  are  supposed  to  be  the  patrons  of  agri- 
culture and  weaving,  and  who,  according  to 
one  of  China's  most  beautiful  fairy  tales,  were 
at  one  time  husband  and  wife.  As  a  result  of 
a  neglect  of  their  duties  after  their  marriage, 
they  were  separated  by  the  Heavenly  River — 
the  Milky  Way — and  were  allowed  to  come 
together  but  once  a  year,  the  seventh  of  the 
seventh  moon.  As  there  was  no  bridge  on 
which  to  cross  the  river,  the  magpies  hovered 
wing  to  wing,  and  on  their  backs  the  fairy 
feet  of  the  spinning  maiden  was  able  to  cross 
to  her  husband.  They  could  remain  together 
but  for  the  day,  and  when  evening  came  the 
magpies  again  formed  the  bridge  for  her  to 
return.  They  were  sad  at  having  to  part,  and 
shed  copious  showers  of  tears,  which  is  the 
cause  of  the  heavy  rains  that  occur  at  this 
season  of  the  year. 

In  the  homes  at  this  time  the  people  drop 
tiny  cambric  needles  upon  the  surface  of  basins 
of  water  on  which  the  sun  is  shining.  These 
cast  shadows  across  the  bottom  of  the  basin. 
The  shadows  take  different  forms  according 
to  the  positions  of  the  needles.  If  they  take 
certain  prescribed  forms,  the  person  casting  in 


FAMILY   CEREMONIES  137 

the  needles  is  supposed  to  be  both  clever  and 
lucky,  while  if  they  take  other  forms  they  are 
supposed  to  be  despised  by  the  gods  as  being 
ignorant.  At  this  time  the  people  worship 
these  two  stars. 

On  the  eighth  and  the  fifteenth  of  the  eighth 
moon,  which  is  the  mid-autumn  feast,  the 
Chinese  celebrate  the  Moon  Festival.  The 
Chinese  suppose  that  the  moon  is  never  round 
except  on  this  particular  day.  The  Chinese 
worship  the  moon  at  this  time,  and  in  every 
home  or  bakery  they  prepare  and  eat  a  small 
round  cake.  This  festival  is  sometimes  cele- 
brated by  theatrical  performances,  which  de- 
scribe the  following  scene  in  the  moon  : 

In  the  moon  there  dwells  a  beautiful  maiden 
named  Ch'ang  O.,  her  only  companion  being  a 
jade  rabbit  (white),  whose  time  is  spent  pulveriz- 
ing the  elixir  of  life.  The  rabbit  on  one  occasion 
escaped  from  the  moon,  came  down  to  the  earth, 
and  became  a  beautiful  girl.  Now  in  the  sun 
there  is  a  golden  one-legged  cock,  which  when 
he  learned  that  the  rabbit  had  gone  down 
to  the  earth,  left  the  sun,  came  down  to  the 
earth,  and  transformed  himself  into  a  handsome 
prince.  Of  course,  they  soon  met  and  fell  in 
love.  Now  on  the  earth  there  was  a  red  rabbit, 
which,  when  he  learned  what  was  transpiring, 
changed  himself  into  a  prince,  and  began  to 
make  love  to  the  maiden,  with  the  object  of 
supplanting  the  cock.  As  he  was  unable  to 
change  the  redness  of  his  face,  he  found  himself 


138  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

unsuccessful,  and  the  sun-cock  had  things  all  his 
own  way.  When  the  maiden  of  the  moon  dis- 
covered that  her  rabbit  was  gone,  she  sent  her 
heavenly  soldiers  to  capture  her  rabbit  and  carry 
her  back  to  the  moon,  and  when  the  cock  was 
left  alone  there  was  nothing  for  him  to  do  but 
to  return  to  the  sun,  where  he  remains  to-day. 

The  festivals  that  are  most  intimately  con- 
nected with  the  family  have  to  do  with  birth- 
days and  the  life  of  the  children.  On  the  third 
day  after  a  child  is  born  it  is  given  its  first  bath. 
The  special  women  friends  of  the  family  are  in- 
vited to  witness  the  ceremony,  and  anyone  who 
fails  to  appear  on  this  day  may  not  see  the 
mother  for  a  month,  lest  her  presence  take  away 
the  mother's  milk  and  leave  the  babe  to  grow 
up  a  puny,  sickly  child. 

The  second  festival  in  the  life  of  a  child  is  when 
it  is  a  month  old.  On  this  day  the  mother  is 
supposed  to  be  up  and  able  to  receive  her  guests. 
The  head  of  the  child  is  shaved  before  the  guests 
arrive  and  the  infant  is  on  exhibition.  A  feast 
is  prepared  by  the  parents,  and  presents  are 
brought  by  the  guests.  These  presents  may  be 
lacquered  boxes  in  which  are  cakes  in  the  form 
of  the  peach  of  longevity,  or  round  cakes  in 
which  the  character  for  long  life  is  stamped  or 
written  with  red  ink  ;  or  boxes  filled  with  ver- 
micelli, which  when  cooked  is  in  long  strings,  in- 
dicative of  a  wish  that  the  child  may  have  a  long 
life.  The  maternal  grandmother  makes  the 
child  its  first  suit  of  clothes. 


FAMILY    CEREMONIES  139 

When  the  child  is  a  year  old  they  have  still 
another  feast.  The  friends  gather  as  before, 
bringing  all  kinds  of  appropriate  presents  for 
the  child.  During  the  day  a  number  of  things 
are  arranged  on  a  platter,  and  the  child  is  al- 
lowed to  see  them  and  to  make  a  selection. 
The  first  thing  it  takes  in  its  hand  is  supposed 
to  indicate  the  profession  or  calling  it  will  follow. 
If  it  chooses  a  pen,  an  inkstone,  or  a  book,  it  will 
be  a  scholar  ;  if  an  abacus,  a  merchant  or  a 
banker  ;  if  any  kind  of  a  tool,  a  tradesman.  If 
the  child  is  a  girl,  a  different  class  of  things 
will  be  placed  on  the  platter — scissors,  thimble, 
or  other  things  that  will  be  appropriate  to  indi- 
cate the  scope  of  a  girl's  life. 

When  the  child  is  old  enough  to  begin  to 
study,  the  calendar,  and  the  soothsayers  if 
necessary,  are  consulted,  and  a  lucky  day  is 
selected,  and  after  worshipping  the  ancestral 
tablets  and  that  of  Confucius,  it  enters  upon  its 
interminable  task.  When  born  it  was  given  a 
milk  name  such  as  "  got-a-man,"  "  got-a-moun- 
tain,"  "  got-a-fish,"  or  "  sheep,"  "  cow,"  "  dog," 
or  "  pig."  When  he  enters  school,  his  teacher 
selects  a  school  name,  usually  of  two  characters, 
and  a  peculiarity  of  this  name  is  that  all  the 
members  of  that  generation — all  the  cousins — 
have  one  of  those  characters  in  his  name.  This 
will  be  best  understood  when  I  say  that  the 
given  name  of  the  great  Viceroy,  Li  Hung-chang, 
was  Hung-chang,  while  his  brother,  also  a  viceroy, 
was  Han-chang,  the  character  chang  being  a  part 


140  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

of  the  name  of  all  the  boys  of  their  generation. 
Later  in  life,  his  friends  give  him  an  honorific 
title  which  harmonizes  with  his  school  name, 
and  which  they  use  whenever  they  refer  to  him, 
never  calling  him  by  his  milk  name  or  his  school 
name. 


CHAPTER   XV 

MARRIAGE   CEREMONIES 

A  LL  the  arrangements  for  the  marriage  of 
Z-\  boys  and  girls  in  China  are  made  by  their 
-*■  ■**  parents,  with  the  assistance  of  a  middle- 
man, who,  by  the  way,  is  very  often  a  woman. 
It  is  usually  the  father  who  does  most  towards 
the  selecting  of  the  husband  for  his  daughter, 
while  the  mother  takes  charge  of  the  selection 
of  the  wife  for  her  son.  This  is  the  most  natural 
thing  to  do,  for  the  father  knows  or  can  easily 
find  out  about  the  boys,  while  the  mother,  on  the 
same  principle,  can  most  easily  learn  the  charac- 
ter of  the  girl.  Besides,  since  the  girl  is  to  come 
to  live  with  her  in  her  home,  it  is  important  that 
she  be  satisfactory  to  her  mother-in-law. 

The  marriage  of  a  girl  is  more  important  than 
that  of  a  boy,  because  with  her  it  is  once  and 
once  only. 

"  Once  you  marry  'tis  for  ever,  once  you  may 
become  a  wife,"  we  are  told  all  through  Chinese 
literature.  An  exception  is  made  to  this  in  the 
case  of  a  widow  under  fifty,  whose  son  is  under 
fifteen  and  not  old  enough  to  manage  the  busi- 
ness. The  Record  of  Rites  says,  "  Once  mated 
with  her  husband,  all  her  life  she  will  not  change 

141 


142  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

her  feelings  of  duty  to  him  ;  hence,  when  the 
husband  dies  she  will  not  marry  again."  But 
as  we  have  indicated,  if  her  age  be  under  fifty, 
and  that  of  her  son  below  fifteen,  while  at 
the  same  time  she  has  no  close  relatives  on 
her  father's  side  to  take  the  economic  re- 
sponsibility off  her  shoulders,  she  may  marry 
again. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  it  is  not  the 
practice  of  the  parents  to  disregard  the  wishes 
of  their  children,  though,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
children  can  have  but  little  opinion  about  the 
matter.  They  have  had  no  love  affairs,  no  ex- 
perience, and  can  have  no  choice,  and  so  they 
have  to  trust  their  parents  and  their  go-between, 
though  Chinese  literature  is  not  without  in- 
stances of  young  people  who  have  fallen  in  love 
and  married.  The  one  story  that  I  remember, 
which  every  Chinese  knows  and  approves  of, 
and  which  breaks  all  Chinese  ideas  of  propriety 
in  this  matter,  is  the  following  : 

The  poet  Ssu-ma  Hsiang-ju,  while  wandering 
about  the  country  with  his  guitar,  was  once  met 
at  an  inn  by  a  wealthy  merchant,  who  was  so 
entranced  with  his  poetry  and  music  that  he  in- 
vited him  to  go  with  him  to  his  home.  Now  it 
happened  that  the  merchant  had  a  beautiful 
widowed  daughter,  who  was  as  much  entranced 
with  Ssu-Ma's  poetry  as  her  father  had  been, 
while  the  poet  at  the  same  time  fell  desperately 
in  love  with  her  at  first  sight.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary to  ask  how  they  made  known  their  affec- 


MARRIAGE    CEREMONIES  143 

tion  for  each  other — "  hearts  have  tongues  that 
are  not  made  of  flesh."  At  any  rate,  they  found 
means  of  communicating,  and  finally  eloped. 
They  were  poor,  and  when  the  father  discovered 
that  they  had  fled  together  he  disinherited  his 
daughter,  and  would  have  nothing  to  do  with 
his  son-in-law. 

Ssu-Ma  finally  opened  a  wine-shop  in  which 
his  wife  served  his  customers,  while  he  enter- 
tained them  with  poetry  and  music.     Officials 
passing  along  the  road,  stopping  at  the  inn  on 
their  way  to  the  capital,  heard  the  music  and 
poetry,  and  carried  the  news  to  the  Emperor, 
who  forthwith  ordered  the  poor  poet  to  appear 
before  the  imperial  presence,  and  it  was  not  long 
until  his  fame  had  spread  to  all  parts  of  the 
realm.     Of  course  his  father-in-law  heard  of  him, 
and  was  as  anxious  to  be  reconciled  to  his  son- 
in-law  as  his  daughter  was  to  be  forgiven  by  her 
1  father.     This,    of   course,   was   easily   brought 
,  about,  and  the  Chinese  tell  this  as  an  ideal  love 
;  affair  between  a  young  widow  and  a  poet  who 
I  eloped.     There  were  no  rites  performed  at  their 
i  engagement  or  their  wedding. 

There  are  six  rites  for  marriage.  After  the 
family  of  the  girl  has  accepted  the  proposal,  the 
I first  rite  to  be  performed  is  "  giving  a  choice." 
This  consists  of  the  father  and  mother,  through 
the  intervention  of  a  go-between,  selecting,  and 
receiving  the  consent  of  her  parents,  in  case  all 
other  things  are  favourable,  to  become  the  wife 
of  their  son. 


144  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

The  second  rite  is  "  inquiring  into  the  name  " 
of  the  girl.  No  one  is  allowed  to  marry  a  girl 
having  a  name  like  his  own.  Smith  could  not 
marry  Smith  in  China,  lest  she  by  chance  might 
be  his  relative,  and  the  Chinese  say  that  one 
should  not  marry  his  relative  though  she  be  re- 
moved by  a  hundred  generations.  Thus  it  is 
that  a  prince  may  not  marry  a  princess,  and 
even  the  Emperor  must  marry  a  commoner. 
The  above  rites  are  consummated  at  the  same 
time. 

The  third  rite  is  "  giving  the  lucky  result  "  of 
divination.  The  Chinese  have  twelve  animals, 
under  one  or  the  other  of  which  everyone  must 
be  born,  as  well  as  a  definite  system  of  astrology, 
and  the  star  under  which  one  happens  to  be  born 
may  have  a  good  deal  towards  quieting  one*  s 
mind  in  case  she  has  a  difference  of  opinion  with 
her  husband.  Now  it  is  evident  that  one  born 
under  the  fox  could  not  marry  one  born  under 
the  chicken.  And  so  all  these  things  have  to 
be  decided  before  the  wedding  is  finally  settled 
upon. 

The  fourth  rite  is  "  giving  engagement  "  pre- 
sents. These  consist  of  a  bundle  of  silk  and  two 
pieces  of  deer-skin,  which  may  be  used  for  cloth- 
ing. The  bundle  of  silk  contains  five  rolls,  three 
black  and  two  crimson. 

The  fifth  rite  is  "  inquiring  about  the  date  " 

of  the  calendar,  and  the  selection  of  a  lucky  day. 


MARRIAGE    CEREMONIES  145 

The  Astronomical  Board,  in  making  the  annual 
calendar,  decides  upon  the  lucky  and  unlucky 
days,  and  no  sane  person  will  think  of  marrying, 
or  burying  a  friend,  upon  an  unlucky  day.  In 
any  city  in  China,  on  certain  days  the  streets 
will  be  thronged  with  funerals  and  weddings,  or 
long  processions  of  wedding  presents  such  as  we 
have  described  under  the  chapter  on  marriage. 

The  sixth  rite  is  that  of  "■  personal  receiving," 
an  act  of  the  bridegroom  himself  in  ancient 
times.  He  was  expected  to  go  to  the  bride's 
home  and  receive  her  himself.  No  one  was 
exempt  from  this  rite,  not  even  the  Emperor 
himself.  This,  however,  is  not  done  now.  The 
bridegroom  sends  a  sedan  chair  in  which  the 
bride  is  brought  to  his  home.  He  meets  the 
chair,  taps  on  it  with  his  fan,  bows  to  her  atten- 
dants, then  her  women  take  her  into  the  house, 
and  his  first  act  is  to  remove  her  veil. 

The  girl  may  have  a  good  deal  to  say  as  to 
the  importance  of  these  rites.  In  the  Book 
of  Poetry  there  is  a  poem  written  by  a  heroic 
girl.  She  had  promised  to  marry  a  man  of  Teng, 
and  his  family  wanted  to  receive  her  before  the 
rites  of  marriage  had  been  completed.  She  re- 
fused to  allow  them  to  do  so,  on  the  ground  that 
marriage  is  a  most  sacred  thing,  and  cannot  be 
consummated  without  the  full  observance  of 
rites.  His  family  prosecuted  her  and  brought 
her  to  court.  But  she  insisted  that  if  all  but 
one  present  had  been  given  and  all  but  one  rite 

10 


146  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

had  been  performed,  she  would  not  leave  her 
home  even  if  she  sacrificed  her  life. 

With  the  exception  of  the  rite  of  engagement, 
the  other  five  are  each  accompanied  by  a  goose. 
Other  wedding  ceremonies  will  be  found  under 
Chapter  VIII  on  marriage. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

FUNERAL  CEREMONIES 

THE  most  expensive  thing  about  a  man  in 
China  is  his  funeral,  and  perhaps  the  Last 
expensive  thing  about  a  child.  During 
the  old  regime  the  very  poor  not  infrequently 
wrapped  the  dead  bodies  of  little  infants  up  in 
old  matting  or  old  cloth,  and  laid  them  out  on 
certain  street  corners,  where  a  man  with  a  black 
cart  drawn  by  a  black  cow  passed  along  every 
morning,  gathered  them  up,  drew  them  out  of 
the  city,  and  buried  them  all  in  one  hole. 

It  would  not  be  surprising  to  find  those  same 
poor  people  go  hopelessly  into  debt  in  conduct- 
ing the  funeral  ceremonies  of  their  parents.  This, 
of  course,  is  easily  understood.  One  has  to  be 
associated  with  another  a  certain  length  of  time 
before  very  much  impression  is  made,  and  so  few 
funeral  rites  are  ever  paid  anywhere  in  the  world 
to  still-born  infants. 

As  to  the  clothing  and  coffins  used  I  wish  to 
quote  Dr.  Chen  Huan-chang.  He  says  :  "  At 
the  ceremony  of  '  slighter  dressing  '  of  the  dead, 
the  sheet  for  a  ruler's  body  is  embroidered  ;  for 
that  of  a  great  official,  white  silk  ;  for  that  of  a 
student,  black  silk  ;   each  has  one  sheet.     But 

147 


148  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

there  are  nineteen  suits  of  clothes  for  each  of 
them  ;  a  suit  is  made  up  of  a  long  robe  and  a 
shorter  one  placed  over  it,  and  there  must  be  the 
upper  garment  together  with  the  lower  garment. 
At  the  '  fuller  dressing,'  each  of  them  has  two 
sheets  ;  but  a  ruler  has  one  hundred  suits  of 
clothes  ;  a  great  official,  fifty  ;  and  a  student, 
thirty..  For  the  coffins,  the  longest  or  outermost 
coffin  of  a  ruler  is  eight  inches  thick,  the  next 
six  inches,  and  the  innermost  four  inches.  The 
larger  coffin  of  a  great  official  of  the  highest 
grade  is  eight  inches  thick,  and  the  inner  six 
inches  ;  for  one  of  the  lowest  grade,  the  dimen- 
sions are  six  inches  and  four ;  the  coffin  of  a 
student  is  six  inches  thick.  For  the  outer  shell 
of  a  coffin,  the  ruler  uses  pine  ;  a  great  official, 
cypress  ;  a  student,  various  kinds  of  woods. 
The  shell  of  a  coffin  for  the  common  people 
should  be  five  inches  thick,  the  coffin  four  "  ;  but 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  we  find  them  all  thicknesses, 
from  a  half  or  three-quarters  of  an  inch  for 
paupers  up  to  six  or  eight  inches  for  the  wealthy. 
One  of  the  most  appropriate  presents  of  a  son 
to  his  father  or  mother  when  they  are  old  is  a 
coffin,  and  one  very  often  sees  a  present  of  this 
kind  in  a  shed  or  room  in  the  courts  of  the  middle 
classes. 

There  are  certain  contributions  also  made  at 
the  time  of  a  funeral.  According  to  the  Canon 
of  Rites  these  contributions  may  be  divided  into 
three  kinds.  First,  contributions  for  the  dead. 
Some  are  called  "  shroud,"  such  as  the  sheets 


FUNERAL    CEREMONIES  149 

and  clothes.  Some  are  called  "  gifts,"  such  as 
the  "  spiritual  vessels."  The  value  of  these  con- 
tributions depends  upon  the  rank  or  wealth  or 
intimacy  of  the  contributor.  Second,  the  con- 
tributions for  the  mourner.  These  are  called 
"  helps,"  and  are  usually  in  the  form  of  money 
or  other  gifts  which  will  prevent  the  mourner 
from  going  too  deep  in  debt.  Third,  the  con- 
tributions for  both  the  dead  and  the  mourner  ; 
such,  for  instance,  as  silk,  carriages,  horses, 
sheep,  &c.  These  are  used  both  for  the  obse- 
quies, and  for  the  financial  assistance  of  the 
family.  "  By  these  contributions,  society  is 
interwoven  like  a  net,  and  wealth  is  distributed 
to  and  fro  like  the  tide." 

It  will  be  observed  that  these  funeral  rites  are 
of  four  kinds  :  ethical,  aesthetic,  social,  and  eco- 
nomic. Notice  them  first  from  the  ethical  point 
of  view.  The  whole  underlying  foundation  of 
the  Confucian  code  is  filial  piety.  To  be  filial 
to  a  parent  while  living  is  easy,  but  one's  genuine 
affection  is  best  shown  when  the  parent  is  dead, 
and  hence  exhibited  in  his  treatment  of  his 
parent's  burial. 

But  the  expensive  funeral  cannot  be  accounted 
for  on  ethical  grounds  alone.  There  is  a  social 
or  aesthetic  side.  How  much  of  our  expense  in 
life  would  be  saved  were  it  not  for  the  necessity 
of  appearing  well  in  society.  How  much  of  our 
expense  in  death  might  also  be  saved  were  it  not 
for  the  fact  that  our  friends  would  lose  face  if 
we  were  carried  to  our  grave  in  an  inexpensive 


150  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

casket.  It  is  partly  because  they  love  us,  but 
more  largely  because  society  demands  it,  or 
because  our  own  sense  of  the  fitness  of  things 
demands  it.     It  is  expensive  to  be  civilized. 

But  the  fourth  reason  for  an  expensive  funeral 
is  the  economic.  There  are  men  who  make  a 
business  of  burying  people.  They  learn  their 
business  so  thoroughly,  they  can  do  it  in  such  a 
genteel  way,  that  we  prefer  to  have  them  take 
charge  of  it.  Besides,  we  do  not  care  to  take 
charge  of  such  things  ourselves.  Our  hearts  are 
sore.  We  are  willing  to  sit  down  with  this  one 
person,  or  let  some  intimate  friend  or  relative  sit 
down  with  this  person,  and  say  how  much  we  are 
willing  to  give  for  a  nice  funeral,  and  then  allow 
him  to  take  charge  of  it.  How  differently  we 
treat  a  funeral  from  a  birth — though  for  every 
birth  we  know  that  there  must  be  a  funeral ;  but 
though  we  rejoice  at  the  birth,  we  hope  that 
someone  else  may  have  charge  of  the  funeral. 
Now  it  is  to  the  interest  of  the  one  who  has 
charge  of  it,  to  surround  it  with  as  many  rites 
as  possible,  for  people  will  spend  a  larger  amount 
of  money  if  we  can  get  them  to  do  it  in  driblets. 
The  shrewd  business  man  will  not,  but  then  most 
people  are  not  shrewd  business  men.  And  so, 
the  Chinese  have  a  host  of  other  funeral  rites. 

For  instance,  when  a  person  of  note  died,  espe- 
cially under  the  old  regime,  a  large  catafalque 
was  placed  in  the  middle  of  the  street — the 
largest  highway  at  the  mouth  of  his  own  hutung, 
or  lane — where  it  was  left  for  a  week  or  ten  days, 


FUNERAL    CEREMONIES  151 

while  everybody,  great  or  small,  had  to  drive 
down  on  the  side  walk  in  order  to  pass.  His 
family  had  to  pay  the  funeral  director  for  that 
display.  Again,  the  family  all  dress  in  white  for 
some  weeks  or  months,  which,  while  it  is  in  itself 
inexpensive,  is  an  additional  expense  to  what 
they  would  have  but  for  this  ceremony. 

After  the  catafalque  has  been  removed,  the 
family  bring  to  this  same  spot  houses,  horses, 
carts,  servants,  sedan  chairs,  rolls  of  paper-silk, 
all  made  of  paper  and  broom-corn  stalks,  to- 
gether with  everything  that  they  can  think  of 
that  pleased  the  departed  while  in  this  life, 
arrange  them  neatly  together,  and  send  them  all 
up  to  heaven  in  smoke  and  flame — or  a  chariot 
of  fire — where  they  may  serve  the  spirit  of  their 
friend.  This  is  an  expensive  bonfire,  for  men 
have  spent  weeks  in  preparing  these  various 
paraphernalia,  but  it  is  the  custom  of  the 
country,  and  may  be  a  contribution  from  some 
friend  of  the  family  who  feels  that  this  must 
not  be  neglected. 

Then  there  must  be  a  certain  number  of 
bearers  to  carry  the  coffin.  The  Emperor 
Kuang  Hsu  was  carried  to  his  grave  by  not 
less  than  six  hundred  pole-bearers,  while  the 
poor  beggar  who  dies  on  the  street  may  be  car- 
ried out  of  the  city  on  the  shoulders  of  two  men, 
though  his  body  be  twice  as  heavy  as  that  of 
his  late  Majesty.  As  the  funeral  passes  along 
the  street,  round  pieces  of  paper  with  a  square 
hole  in  the  centre,  made  in  the  shape  of  copper 


152  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

cash,  will  be  scattered  along  the  road,  or  tossed 
up  into  the  air,  where  it  will  be  scattered  by  the 
breeze,  for  the  future  use  of  the  spirit.  And 
after  he  is  buried  the  friends  will  visit  the  ceme- 
tery at  least  once  a  year,  and  send  ingots  of  sil- 
vered or  gilt  paper  to  the  spirit  of  the  departed 
in  that  very  convenient  chariot  of  fire. 

But  the  most  expensive  thing  about  the 
funeral  of  one's  father  or  mother  to  an  official  is 
that  he  must  give  up  his  official  position,  and 
go  into  a  period  of  mourning  for  at  least  three 
years.  And  it  has  not  infrequently  happened 
that  officials  have  come  to  the  European  phy- 
sicians and  begged  them  to  keep  their  father  or 
mother  alive,  so  that  they  may  still  retain  their 
office. 

Now  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  Chinese 
make  no  distinctions  in  the  obsequies  of  their 
parents,  whether  they  be  father  or  mother. 
Men  and  women  fare  the  same.  After  Mencius 
had  buried  his  mother,  who,  by  the  way,  is  one 
of  the  most  famous  women  in  all  Chinese  his- 
tory, his  pupil,  Chung  Yii,  asked  about  the  woods 
of  the  coffin,  which  seemed  too  good.  Mencius 
replied  : 

"  Anciently  there  was  no  rule  for  the  size  of 
either  the  inner  or  the  outer  coffin.  In  middle 
antiquity  (1900  to  1100  B.C.)  the  inner  coffin 
was  made  seven  inches  thick,  and  the  outer  one 
the  same.  This  was  done  by  all,  from  the  Em- 
peror to  the  common  people,  and  not  simply  for 
the  beauty  of  the  appearance,  but  because  they 


FUNERAL    CEREMONIES  153 

thus  satisfied  the  natural  feeling  of  their  hearts. 
If  prevented  by  statutory  regulations  from 
making  their  coffins  in  this  way,  men  cannot 
have  the  feeling  of  pleasure.  If  they  have  not 
the  money  to  make  them  in  this  way,  they  can- 
not have  the  feeling  of  pleasure.  When  they 
were  not  prevented,  and  had  the  money,  all  the 
ancients  used  this  style.  Why  should  I  alone 
not  do  so  ?  Moreover,  is  there  no  satisfaction  to 
the  natural  feelings  of  a  man,  in  preventing  the 
earth  from  getting  near  to  the  body  of  his 
dead  ?  I  have  heard  that  the  superior  man 
will  not,  for  all  the  world,  be  niggardly  to  his 
parents." 


CHAPTER   XVII 

ANCESTOR -WORSHIP 

ANCESTOR  -  WORSHIP  for  many  cen- 
/-\  turies  has  been  the  state  worship — the 
**■  *•  universal  worship  of  the  Chinese.  Some 
were  Buddhists,  some  Taoists,  some  Confucian- 
ists,  some  Mohammedans,  but  all  were  ancestor- 
worshippers.  In  a  sense  this  is  a  species  of  re- 
ligion, but  it  is  more  especially  a  social  or  ethical 
custom.  It  is  largely  for  the  purpose  of  de- 
veloping that  one  great  principle  of  all  the 
Chinese  civilization,  the  foundation  of  all  the 
Chinese  social  and  ethical  system — filial  piety. 
No  one  can  understand  China  and  the  Chinese 
until  he  has  burned  into  his  thought  the  fact 
that  filial  piety  lies  at  the  base — nay,  is  the 
base,  the  corner  stone,  the  whole  foundation, 
one  might  almost  say — of  the  whole  Chinese 
domestic,  social,  religious,  and  civic  life. 

The  Chinese  have  what  they  call  the  Doctrine 
of  Name.  It  is  based  upon  certain  Confucian 
sayings,  such  as  :  "  The  superior  man  hates  that 
his  name  will  not  be  praised  after  his  death." 
Again  he  says  :  "  When  we  have  established  our 
personality  and  diffused  our  principles,  so  as  to 
make  our  name  famous  in  future  ages,  and  there- 
by glorify  our  parents  :   this  is  the  end  of  filial 

154 


ANCESTOR-WORSHIP  155 

piety."  Mr.  Chen  Huan-chang  tells  us  that 
"  The  relation  between  father  and  son  is  the 
strongest  tie  of  Chinese  society,  and  it  is  the 
basis  of  Confucius'  philosophy  and  religion." 
The  affection  of  a  father  for  his  son,  Mr.  Chen 
assures  us,  is  stronger  than  that  of  a  husband 
for  his  wife.  Then  taking  this  natural  love  as 
a  basis,  Confucius  establishes  the  doctrine  of 
filial  piety,  the  Canon  of  which  thus  sums  up 
the  duties  of  a  son  : 

"  The  service  which  a  filial  son  renders  his 
parents  is  as  follows  :  In  his  general  conduct  to 
them,  he  manifests  the  utmost  reverence  ;  in 
his  nourishing  of  them,  his  endeavour  is  to  give 
them  the  utmost  pleasure  ;  when  they  are  ill, 
he  feels  the  greatest  anxiety  ;  in  mourning  for 
them  dead,  he  exhibits  every  demonstration  of 
grief ;  in  sacrificing  to  them,  he  displays  the 
utmost  solemnity.  When  a  son  is  complete  in 
these  five  things,  he  may  be  pronounced  able  to 
serve  his  parents."  But  the  last  analysis  of  it 
all  is  the  desire  on  the  part  of  every  man  to  pre- 
serve his  name  for  future  generations,  and,  if  he 
is  not  able  to  perform  great  things,  and  thus  be 
remembered  by  posterity,  he  at  least  may  be 
remembered  by  a  son,  a  grandson,  a  great-grand- 
son, and  so  on  ad  infinitum,  in  the  hope  that  some- 
one some  time,  in  his  line,  may  make  a  lasting 
name  for  the  family.  For  the  individual,  then, 
ancestor-worship  preserves  his  name,  and  for  the 
ethical  system  it  develops  the  doctrine  of  filial 
piety. 


156  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

Now  for  the  method.  When  a  man  decides 
to  build  a  house,  his  first  consideration  should 
be  the  ancestral  temple.  This  should  be  built 
before  the  house.  The  sacrificial  dress  should 
be  prepared  before  his  own  wardrobe,  and  even 
though  he  was  cold  he  should  not  wear  the  sacri- 
ficial robes  for  protection.  Then  he  must  have 
sacrificial  vessels,  and  these  should  be  provided 
before  those  that  he  uses  for  his  own  family. 
These  vessels  should  not  be  sold  for  the  relief  of 
the  family  in  time  of  poverty.  In  other  words, 
the  things  necessary  for  the  worship  of  their 
ancestors  should  take  precedence  of  their  daily 
necessities.  Then  they  should  have  offerings — 
and  these  include  everything  that  heaven  and 
earth  produce,  and  should  be  offered  according 
to  the  seasons.  Of  course,  poor  families  cannot 
have  a  temple,  they  may  not  be  able  to  afford 
sacrificial  robes  nor  vessels,  but  they  must  have 
tablets,  and  a  sacred  place  in  the  home  for  the 
tablets,  and  must  perform  this  worship  accord- 
ing to  the  times  and  the  seasons,  the  same  as 
those  in  better  circumstances. 

Nor  is  anyone  exempt.  According  to  the 
Law  Code  of  the  Ch'ing  Dynasty  (the  Manchu 
dynasty)  all  the  monks  and  nuns  of  the  Budd- 
hist and  Taoist  temples  were  required  to  kneel 
before  their  parents,  to  worship  their  ancestors, 
and  to  follow  the  system  of  mourning  prescribed 
for  the  people.  If  they  did  not  obey  this  law, 
they  might  be  punished  with  one  hundred  blows 
with  the  long  stick,  and  be  driven  from  their 


ANCESTOR-WORSHIP  157 

monastery  to  their  home.  This  shows  the  im- 
portance the  Chinese  attached  to  ancestor- 
worship.  They  allowed  everyone  to  have  perfect 
freedom  of  belief,  but  they  compelled  all  to  per- 
form these  social  and  ethical  duties.  "  There- 
fore, according  to  this  view  of  the  Chinese, 
ancestor-worship  is  not  a  religious  rite,  but  a 
social  and  ethical  obligation." 

Now  we  may  learn  another  thing  about 
Chinese  customs  and  ideas.  God,  according  to 
the  Confucian  teaching,  is  the  common  father  of 
all  mankind  ;  while  each  man  is  a  sort  of  com- 
panion to  God,  but  his  vicegerent  or  deputy  on 
earth  for  the  propagation  of  the  race.  And  so 
Confucius  says  :  "By  the  ceremonies  of  the 
sacrifices  to  Heaven  and  Earth,  we  are  to  serve 
the  Supreme  God  ;  and,  by  the  ceremonies  of 
the  ancestral  temple,  we  are  to  worship  the  an- 
cestors. One  who  understands  the  ceremonies 
of  the  sacrifices  to  Heaven  and  Earth,  and  the 
meaning  of  the  several  sacrifices  to  ancestors, 
will  find  the  governing  of  the  kingdom  as  easy 
as  to  look  into  his  palm." 

We  learned  in  Chapter  XIII  that  the  Emperor, 
as  the  civic  father  of  the  people,  stands  in  this 
double  relation.  He  worships  God  at  the  Tem- 
ples of  Heaven  and  Earth,  and  is  the  only  person 
in  the  empire  who  may  properly  do  so,  while  at 
the  same  time  he  worships  his  ancestors,  and  the 
Emperor  who  performs  all  these  rites  and  cere- 
monies in  a  proper  way  may  find  it  as  easy  to 
govern  a  kingdom  as  to  look  into  his  palm. 


158  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

However  this  be,  we  learn  that  he  is  the  only  one 
in  the  empire  who  is  allowed  to  worship  Heaven 
and  Earth,  and  that  the  Chinese  are  therefore 
not  a  religious  but  an  ethical  people,  whose  whole 
concern  is  their  relation  to  each  other. 

Does  Confucius  believe  in  the  soul  ?  That  he 
does,  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  it  is  the  soul 
to  which  the  worship  is  directed.  As  soon  as  the 
dead  is  buried  the  soul  at  once  returns  to  the 
home,  and  is  represented  by  the  ancestral  tablet. 
This  is  nothing  more  than  a  small  board,  made 
in  the  form  of  a  miniature  grave-stone,  which 
thereafter  represents  the  departed  one.  Of 
course,  the  soul  could  not  dwell  in  the  tablet, 
else  how  could  there  be  so  many  tablets  of  Con- 
fucius in  so  many  different  Confucian  temples  ? 
Confucius  himself  says  :  "  The  physical  body 
goes  downwards,  but  the  intelligent  spirit  is  on 
high."  Again  he  says  :  "  The  bones  and  flesh 
moulder  below,  and,  hidden  away,  become  the 
earth  of  the  fields  ;  but  the  spirit  issues  forth, 
and  is  displayed  on  high  in  a  condition  of 
glorious  brightness." 

However,  Confucius  does  not  try  to  prove  the 
existence  of  the  soul,  for  the  Record  of  Rites  tells 
us  that  :  "  The  flesh  of  the  victim  may  be  pre- 
sented raw,  and  as  a  whole,  or  cut  up  in  pieces, 
or  sodden,  or  thoroughly  cooked  ;  but  how  can 
we  know  whether  the  spirit  does  enjoy  it  ?  It 
is  simply  that  the  sacrificer  shows  his  reverence 
to  the  utmost  of  his  power."  The  sacrifice  is, 
therefore,  not  so  much  for  the  sake  of  the  de- 


ANCESTOR-WORSHIP  159 

parted  spirit  as  for  the  filial  development  of 
the  son. 

"  If  the  soul  is  unknowable,  why  does  Con- 
fucius make  ancestor-worship  necessary  ?  It  is 
only  on  the  ethical  ground.  As  we  have  already 
said  that  filial  piety  is  the  chief  virtue  of  his 
moral  system,  should  a  son  stop  observing  such 
an  important  principle  after  the  death  of  his 
parents  ?  Certainly  not.  It  is  by  ancestor- 
worship  that  the  nourishment  of  parents  is  fol- 
lowed up  and  filial  duty  to  them  perpetuated. 
Confucius  says  :  '  Serving  the  dead  as  they  were 
served  when  alive,  and  serving  the  departed  as 
if  they  were  still  abiding  among  us  ;  this  is  the 
summit  of  filial  conduct.'  Therefore,  ancestor- 
worship  is  exclusively  for  the  sake  of  virtue,  and 
the  worshipper  does  not  seek  anything  for  his 
own  benefit.  This,"  adds  Mr.  Chen,  from  whom 
this  quotation  is  taken,  "  is  the  noblest  character 
of  the  religion  of  Confucius." 

We  have  tried  to  give  in  this  chapter  the  an- 
cestor-worship of  the  Chinese  from  their  own 
point  of  view.  It  is  impossible  to  understand  it 
clearly  without  going  into  their  homes,  seeing 
their  tablets,  or  their  temples,  and  witnessing  the 
importance  they  attach  to  this  cult.  One  of  the 
officials,  whose  sons  one  of  my  pupils  was  teach- 
ing, once  came  to  Mark  (my  pupil)  and  said  : 

"  Teacher  Liu,  there  is  just  one  objection  I 
have  to  your  honourable  religion."  (Mark  is  a 
Christian.) 

"  Yes,"  answered  Mark,  "  what  is  it  ?  " 


160  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

"  You  do  not  worship  your  ancestors,"  said 
the  official. 

"  You  do  worship  your  ancestors,  do  you 
not  ?  "  said  Mark. 

"  I  do,  regularly,"  answered  the  gentleman. 

"  You  worship  your  father  ?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  And  your  grandfather  ?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  And  your  great-grandfather  ?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  And  your  great-great-grandfather  ?  " 

"  K'e  pu  chih  tao  t'a  shih  shut  (I  do  not  know 
who  he  was)." 

"  Well  now,  will  not  the  spirit  of  your  great- 
great-grandfather  feel  grieved  to  know  that  his 
son,  and  grandson,  and  great-grandson  are  wor- 
shipped while  he  is  neglected  ?  " 

"  Met  hsiang  tao  (I  never  thought  of  that)." 

"  Well  now,  we  just  worship  our  Father  in 
Heaven,  and  that  takes  in  all  our  ancestors,"  ex- 
plained Mark,  and  the  official  never  raised  any 
further  objections. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

SERVANTS 

FEW  Americans  know  how  to  serve,  and 
few  know  how  to  be  served.  I  think  I 
should  be  inclined  to  put  Australians,  so 
far  as  I  know  them,  and  Canadians  in  the  same 
class  with  the  Americans.  In  these  countries 
there  is  so  much  room,  and  so  much  opportunity 
for  a  man  to  be  a  man — a  woman  to  be  a  woman 
— that  no  one  is  inclined  to  be  a  servant.  I  have 
heard  Englishmen  boast — and,  as  my  father  was 
an  Englishman,  I  am  not  inclined  to  make  dis- 
paraging remarks  about  that  side  of  our  house — 
but  I  have  heard  Englishmen  boast  of  the  fact 
that  they  have  been  servants  in  certain  families 
for  twenty  or  thirty  years.  I  doubt  if  you  could 
find  one  American  among  her  whole  ninety  mil- 
lions, who  would  be  inclined  to  boast,  or  even 
admit  a  fact  of  that  kind.  But  the  Englishman 
knows  how  to  serve,  and  he  knows  how  to  be 
served. 

But  in  the  matter  of  service  and  serving  even 
the  Englishman  must  take  a  second  place.  For 
the  Chinaman  has  specialized  service  in  a  way 
that  it  has  never  been  done  in  Great  Britain. 

We  sometimes  think  we  are  specialists  in  the 

II  161 


162  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

West.  We  have  our  eye-specialists — a  species  of 
servants,  of  course,  though  I  simply  use  them  to 
illustrate  what  I  wish  to  say  here — though  they 
usually  combine  with  the  eye,  the  ear,  nose,  and 
throat.  They  have  not  got  down  to  a  last  analy- 
sis of  specializing  as  the  Chinese  doctor  has,  as 
witness  the  following  story,  the  truth  of  which 
I  am  not  willing  to  vouch  for,  though  it  is  told 
by  the  Chinese  to  illustrate  the  point  in  hand. 

A  man  had  been  shot  with  an  arrow,  the 
head  of  which  was  buried  in  the  flesh.  He  tried 
to  pull  it  out,  but  the  skin  had  closed  over  the 
head  and  he  could  not  do  so.  He  went  to  a  phy- 
sician to  get  him  to  remove  it.  The  doctor 
promptly  sawed  the  shaft  off  close  to  the  skin, 
and  then  demanded  his  fee.  "  But,"  said  the 
sufferer,  "  the  head  of  the  arrow  is  still  inside." 

"  Quite  right,"  said  the  doctor.  "I  am  a 
specialist.  I  deal  only  with  outside  diseases. 
If  you  want  the  head  taken  out,  you  will  have 
to  go  to  another  specialist  who  cares  for  inside 
ailments." 

If  you  employ  a  cook  in  China,  he  is  your  big 
servant — ta  shih  fu.  He  takes  a  basket  in  one 
hand  and  a  bird-cage  in  the  other  and  goes  out 
on  the  street  to  buy  your  provisions.  It  may 
be  that  he  will  dispense  with  the  basket  when  he 
carries  the  bird-cage,  and  bring  the  provisions 
home  in  his  sleeve.  He  will  not  allow  your — or 
his — grocer  to  deliver  the  provisions,  because 
that  might  tempt  you  to  inquire  about  the  price 
of  onions,  shall  we  say,  or  beefsteak — a  matter 


SERVANTS  163 

about  which  you  are  supposed  to  know  nothing, 
and  only  the  cook  and  the  grocer  understand. 
He  is  paid  for  his  work  as  a  cook  sixteen  shillings 
a  month,  he  boarding  himself,  but  he  gets  his 
pay  for  buying  provisions,  from  the  merchants 
he  happens  to  patronize  in  what  is  known  in 
China  as  a  "  squeeze."  Of  course,  what  he  gets 
from  the  merchant  comes  out  of  your  pocket, 
but  it  goes  from  him  to  the  dealer  and  then  back 
to  him  again  as  a  legitimate  percentage  on  every- 
thing he  buys.  I  am  talking  now  of  the  mission- 
ary's cook — a  business  man,  a  civilian,  an  army 
officer,  or  a  member  of  any  of  the  Legations,  will 
have  to  pay  his  cook  a  salary  proportionate  to 
that  of  his  own.  Of  course,  his  cook  may  be 
more  expert  than  mine  in  the  preparation  of 
fancy  dishes,  and  besides  he  will  keep  an  assistant 
or  two,  whom  he  will  pretend  to  pay,  which 
makes  it  seem  more  reasonable  that  he  demands 
a  higher  salary  than  mine,  but  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  he  most  likely  only  boards  them  with  food 
from  your  table,  while  he  teaches  them  to  cook, 
and  perhaps  gives  them  a  small  present  on  feast 
days.  Your  cook  may  also  go  and  assist  some 
of  his  other  pupils  when  their  mistresses  are 
giving  dinners,  leaving  his  pupil  to  prepare  your 
evening  meal. 

It  ought  to  be  said  to  the  credit  of  the  China- 
man that  he  makes  a  good  cook,  or  that  he  is 
capable  of  making  a  good  cook,  for  it  depends 
largely  upon  whom  he  serves  and  by  whom  he 
is  taught.     As  a  usual  thing  he  goes  from  place 


164  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

to  place  learning  all  he  can  from  several  mis- 
tresses until  he  can  prepare  all  kinds  of  food,  in 
the  way  in  which  his  employer  wants  it  pre- 
pared. One  day  one  of  our  ladies  was  explain- 
ing to  her  cook  how  she  wanted  him  to  make  the 
bread.  Now  it  sometimes  happens  that  persons 
undertake  to  explain  to  others  what  they  have 
never  done  well  themselves.  You  may  have 
heard  of  people  without  children  telling  how 
"  I  would  bring  up  that  child  if  it  were  mine." 
The  good  Lord  mercifully  protects  little  folks 
from  being  brought  up  that  way.  The  cook 
listened  patiently  until  she  had  finished  her  ex- 
planation, and  then  asked  :  "  T'ai  t'ai  tso  kuo 
liao  man  ton,  met  yu  ?  Did  madam  ever  make 
any  bread  ? 

When  I  was  appointed  to  go  to  China,  the 
first  thing  I  did  was  to  get  the  map  and  find 
where  Peking  is,  and  then  I  said  to  myself  : 
"  Well,  I'll  have  nice  collars  and  cuffs,  at  any 
rate."  And  lo  and  behold,  when  I  arrived  at 
my  destination  I  discovered  that  the  Chinese 
know  nothing  about  laundry.  All  that  those  in 
America  know  about  the  art  of  washing  they 
learned  after  they  came  to  America.  I  never 
saw  a  wash-board,  a  wash-tub,  and  a  flat-iron 
go  together  in  China.  They  have  tubs,  and 
they  wash  clothes  in  them,  but  I  doubt  if  any 
of  my  readers  ever  saw  the  natives  indulging 
in  a  collar,  a  cuff,  a  shirt,  or  shirt-waist,  or  any 
other  garment  equally  uncomfortable,  that  re- 
quired the  services  of  a  smoothing-iron. 


SERVANTS  165 

And  so  we  have  to  train  our  laundrymen. 
They  train  easily.  It  is  a  business  that  is  easily 
learned  and  requires  but  little  capital,  and  hence 
the  reason  why  so  many  Chinese,  when  they 
come  to  America  and  Canada,  are  launderers. 
When  they  began  it  conflicted  with  no  other 
business  and  they  supplied  a  demand.  All  they 
needed  was  a  tub  or  two,  a  wash-board,  a  few 
flat-irons,  some  soap,  and  a  good  deal  of  muscle, 
which  they  were  willing  to  furnish,  and  the  worst 
kind  of  an  old  tumble-down  shack  would  do  for 
their  place  of  business,  and  they  were  ready  to 
go  to  work.  They  were  ready  to  do  that  one 
thing — and  that  alone.  Did  you  ever  take  your 
trousers  to  a  Chinese  laundryman  and  ask  him 
to  press  them  for  you  ?  If  not,  try  it  some  time, 
and  see  if  he  is  not  a  specialist  even  in  America. 
I  wish  to  say,  however,  that  our  laundryman 
was  always  willing  to  press  my  clothing,  though 
his  salary — or  wages  they  would  better  be  called 
— was  fourteen  shillings  a  month. 

No  matter  how  small  your  family  may  be  you 
require  a  laundryman.  This  was  a  surprise  to 
me  when  I  went  to  China.  There  are  those  in 
America,  and  perhaps  England,  who  have  be- 
come so  accustomed  to  helping  themselves,  who 
will  say  when  they  read  this,  "  Why,  one  could 
do  one's  own  washing,  couldn't  they  ?  "  I 
answer,  "  You  could  if  you  wished  to  sacrifice 
your  self-respect  and  your  influence . ' '  One  of  the 
missionaries  in  Peking,  in  order  to  remove  the 
temptation  to  "  squeeze  "  from  his  cook,  took  a 


166  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

market  basket  on  his  arm  and  went  out  to  do  his 
own  buying.     That  was  during  the  days  when 
they  called  us  all  "  foreign  devils  " — and  they 
called  him  "  the  poor  foreign  devil."     You  may 
help  your  laundryman  to  wash  your  curtains, 
your  doylies,  your  flannels,  and  such  things  as 
he  might  "  ruin,"  but  woe  betide  you  if  you  at- 
tempt to  be  a  washerwoman  and  a  "  teacher." 
If  you  succeed  in  the  one  you  will  fail  in  the  other 
— and  your    reputation  as  a    teacher,  to   say 
nothing  of  your  time,  is  worth  more  than  four- 
teen shillings  a  month,  when  he  boards  himself, 
and  does  better  work,  perhaps,  than  you  could  do. 
Then  you  must  have  a  "  boy,"  to  sweep  and 
dust,  set  the  table,  wash  the  dishes,  attend  to 
the  fires,  and  when  we  were  only  two  in  ourfamily 
before  the  babies  came,  our  boy  was  willing  to  do 
our  washing  and  ironing.     You  ask,  "  How  was 
that  ?     Well,  he  was  a  very  stupid  country  boy 
— so  stupid,  and  wanted  the  place  so  badly,  that 
he  would  allow  me  to  scold  him  without  talking 
back.     I  want  to  add  my  confession  here  that 
that  was  more  to  the  credit  of  the  boy  than  to 
me.     But  I  want  to  say  for  my  own  justification 
(and  my  friends  will  all  bear  me  out  in  this)  that 
he  was  awfully  stupid.     But  I  liked  him,  and  I 
let  him  know  it,  and  the  only  rule  I  ever  made 
that  my  wife  was  not  allowed  to  break  was, 
that  she  must  not  dismiss  that  "  boy  " — and  I 
did  not  let  him  know  that.     I  could  trust  him 
with  anything  I  had — with  everything  I  had. 
While  I  was  at  home  on  furlough  some  of  my 


nil    Is! 

IBBRHI 

SERVANTS  167 

friends  took  him,  but  they  could  not  get  along 
with  him — he  was  too  stupid,  they  did  not  like 
him.  And  that  is  the  reason  why  so  many  ser- 
vants do  not  remain  with  their  mistresses.  For 
when  all  the  servants  of  our  group  decided  to 
strike  for  higher  wages,  I  went  to  Cheng  erh — 
that  was  his  name — and  said  : 

"  Cheng  erh,  what  is  all  this  talk  about  the 
servants  striking  ?  " 

"  Pu  chih  tao  (I  don't  know)." 

"  What,  haven't  they  said  anything  to  you 
about  it  ?  " 

"  Met  shuo  shen  mo  (they  have  not  said  any- 
thing)." 

"  Don't  you  know  anything  about  it  ?  " 

"  I  have  just  heard  that  they  are  going  to 
strike,  but  they  said  that  Cheng  erh  has  been  so 
long  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Headland  that  there  is 
no  use  of  talking  to  him,"  and  it  was  worth  all 
that  I  had  ever  endured  from  his  stupidity  to 
know  that  all  the  other  servants  knew  that  he 
would  be  faithful. 

We  become  very  much  attached  to  our  "  boys." 
Read  Mrs.  Conger's  Letters  from  China,  and  see 
what  they  thought  of  their  boy  "  Wang,"  and 
see  also  what  reason  they  had  for  it,  and  how 
faithful  he  was  to  them.  But  the  next  Minister 
would  not  have  Wang  about  the  Legation.  I 
am  not  going  to  find  fault  with  the  Minister — 
neither  am  I  going  to  blame  Wang.  I  would 
give  a  good  deal  to  have  Cheng  erh  with  my  wife 
and  children  this  very  minute.     So  would  she. 


168  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

But  the  customs  and  laws  "  of  my  miserable 
country "  forbid  us  bringing  a  Chinese  to 
America  to  lighten  our  burdens.  And  I  am  not 
going  to  quarrel  with  our  laws,  for  we  have  had 
one  race  problem,  and  we  do  not  want  another. 
But  I  do  want  Cheng  erh. 

Then  you  must  have  a  "  woman  " — a  maid, 
nurse,  sewing-woman,  chamber-maid — anything, 
everything.  That  is  the  kind  of  a  woman  Hsin 
Nai  Nai  was.  She  was  with  my  wife  nineteen 
years,  with  the  exception  of  the  one  year  while 
we  were  on  furlough,  when  she  went  into  service 
with  a  lady  who  paid  her  just  twice  what  we 
paid  her.  But  she  left  that  lady  when  we  re- 
turned to  China,  where  she  was  getting  six  dollars 
a  month,  and  came  back  to  us,  and  we  raised  her 
wages  to  three  dollars  and  a  half — we  had  only 
been  paying  her  three  dollars  before. 

Hsin  Nai  Nai  was  Cheng  erh's  sister,  and  was 
as  clever  as  he  was  stupid.  And  I  think  it  was 
because  my  wife  was  so  fond  of  her  that  made 
me  like  him.  She  is  a  young  widow,  rather  good- 
looking,  and  refused  to  marry  a  Chinese  preacher 
because  she  preferred  to  stay  with  us.  She  was 
ready  to  be  anything,  do  anything  for  us,  and  I 
would  as  much  have  thought  of  scolding  my  wife 
as  I  would  have  thought  of  scolding  Hsin  Nai 
Nai.  To  show  you  how  fond  our  family  were 
of  her,  my  little  boy,  whose  nurse  she  was,  once 
got  into  bed  with  his  mother,  put  his  arms 
around  her  neck,  and  hugging  her  close  to  him, 


SERVANTS  169 

said  :  "Oh,  mamma,  I  love  you  better  than  any- 
body— of  course,  I  don't  mean  Jesus  and  Hsin 
Nai  Nat." 

I  doubt  if  there  are  any  more  faithful  servants 
in  the  world  than  Chinese  servants.  They  are 
Chinese — that  tells  the  whole  story — for  that 
stands  for  diligence,  faithfulness,  politeness, 
loyalty,  economy.  During  the  sixteen  years 
we  were  in  China  I  think  we  had  just  one  thing 
stolen — that  was  a  silver  butter-knife.  I  had 
dismissed  the  laundryman — I  do  not  remember 
the  reason  why — though  I  suspected  him  of 
having  friends  who  relieved  me  of  two  bicycles, 
both  of  which  were  returned  through  the  faith- 
fulness of  two  other  Chinese.  For  three  days 
after  I  dismissed  him  the  butter-knife  could  not 
be  found,  and  when  I  paid  Cheng  erh — it  was 
near  the  end  of  the  month — I  kept  back  one 
dollar  of  his  wages. 

"  How  is  that  ?  "  he  exclaimed. 

"  Cheng  erh,"  I  said,  "  you  are  responsible 
for  everything  in  this  house.  When  that  butter- 
knife  is  found  you  will  get  this  dollar." 

He  did  not  answer  a  word.  The  following  day 
the  butter-knife  was  on  the  table. 

"  How  is  this  ?  "  I  asked  ;  "  the  butter-knife 
has  been  found." 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  "  it  had  slipped  under  the 
linen  at  the  back  of  the  drawer,  and  at  last  I 
found  it." 

My  supposition  is  that  the  laundryman  had 


170  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

carried  it  away,  intending  to  pawn  it  if  we  made 
no  disturbance  ;  that  the  boy  went  to  him,  told 
him  that  I  had  cut  him  one  dollar  in  his  wages, 
and  he  must  produce  the  knife ;  that  he  pro- 
mised that  he  would  make  up  a  story  which 
would  clear  him,  and  thus  it  all  came  about. 


CHAPTER   XIX 

FOOD 

A  STORY  is  told  of  a  young  man  who  came 
to  Mr.  Rockefeller  to  apply  for  a  position. 
L  After  inquiring  what  he  could  do,  Mr. 
Rockefeller  offered  him  his  board,  clothes,  and 
lodgings  for  his  services.  "  But,"  said  the  young 
man,  "  I  can't  work  for  my  board,  clothes,  and 
lodging."  "  That  is  all  I  get,"  answered  the 
multi-millionaire . 

Whether  the  story  is  true  or  not,  we  cannot 
say,  but  how  true  it  is,  that  all  beyond  board, 
clothes,  and  lodging  are,  for  the  most  part, 
luxuries,  and  are  liable  to  become  temptations. 

The  first  requisite  of  life — the  first  necessity 
— is  food,  which  throughout  the  same  zone,  all 
over  the  world,  is  practically  the  same.  Take 
the  map  of  China  and  put  it  down  on  the 
map  of  the  United  States,  with  Peking  on 
Philadelphia,  and  the  coasts  of  the  two  conti- 
nents, Asia  and  America,  will  almost  coincide, 
except  that  China  goes  as  far  south  as  the 
point  of  Florida  before  it  bends  west,  and 
China  would  cover  the  whole  Gulf  of  Mexico 
down  to  the  city  of  Mexico — both  Canton  and 
Hongkong  being  within  the  tropics.     We  may 

171 


172  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

therefore  remember  that  Manchuria  occupies  the 
place  in  Asia  that  New  England  does  in  America, 
Moukden  being  in  the  place  of  Boston,  and  the 
products  of  China  in  the  region  of  Peking  are  the 
same  as  those  in  the  region  of  Philadelphia. 

We  have  corn,  potatoes,  sweet  potatoes, 
wheat,  barley,  millet  of  various  kinds,  broom- 
corn,  beans,  water-melons,  cantaloupes,  cucum- 
bers, onions,  garlic,  celery,  cabbage,  and  all 
kinds  of  vegetables ;  apples,  peaches,  pears, 
plums,  grapes,  apricots,  persimmons,  and  all 
fruits  of  the  fortieth  degree  north  latitude,  and 
but  very  little  rice  or  cotton.  As  we  go  south 
through  China  we  find  the  climate  and  produc- 
tions changing  just  as  we  do  in  the  United  States, 
until  when  we  get  to  Canton  and  Hongkong  we 
have  tropical  fruits  and  productions  of  all  kinds. 

When  foreigners  speak  of  Chinese  food,  they 
bunch  it  all  in  together,  as  though  it  were  the 
same  all  over  the  country.  It  is  decidedly  not 
the  same.  When  we  who  have  been  in  China 
come  home,  folks  talk  to  us  as  though  we  had 
nothing  but  rice  to  live  on,  and  as  though  the 
Chinese  existed  on  this  one  kind  of  food  alone, 
and  as  though  it  was  very  poor  living.  Many  of 
the  Chinese  would  be  well  off  if  they  had  rice  to 
eat.  But  in  most  of  the  country  inns,  in  the 
north,  it  is  quite  impossible  to  get  rice.  There 
the  only  food  is  wheat-flour,  corn-meal,  millet, 
eggs,  chicken,  and  onions  or  cabbage.  The 
Chinese  in  these  country  places  have  pork  and 
mutton,   but  very  seldom  can  one  get   beef  ; 


FOOD  173 

though  in  a  city  like  Peking  one  can  always  buy 
beef,  mutton — the  best  mutton  I  have  ever 
eaten — pork,  fish,  and  chicken,  and  in  the 
winter-time  the  Mongol  market  furnishes  all 
kinds  of  game. 

When  the  cold  winter  months  come — and  be 
it  understood  that  the  climate  of  North  China 
in  the  region  of  Peking  is  much  colder  in  winter, 
and  hotter  in  summer,  than  that  of  the  same 
latitude  of  the  United  States  or  Europe,  and 
this  for  the  reason  that  the  atmosphere  is  almost 
without  moisture  except  during  the  months  of 
July,  August,  and  September,  when  we  have  a 
rainy  season,  and  the  sun  fires  at  us  in  June  rays 
almost  like  those  of  the  tropics,  while  in  the 
winter  time  in  the  north  side  shade,  it  is  almost 
like  an  Arctic  night.  And  so,  I  say,  when  the  cold 
months  come,  great  camel-trains  of  Mongol  men 
and  women  bring  loads  of  frozen  game — deer, 
wild  boar,  pheasants,  partridges,  Mongol  chicken, 
rabbits,  and  everything  that  grows  on  the  moun- 
tains and  the  plains.  Among  the  best  of  all  this 
game  is  the  wild  boar,  the  pheasant,  and  the 
bustard — the  former  fed  on  only  the  cleanest 
food,  and  the  latter  equal  if  not  superior  to  our 
best  American  turkey.  They  have  a  red  haw, 
about  the  size  of  a  crab-apple — an  inch  in  dia- 
meter— which  makes  a  sauce  for  bustard  equal 
if  not  superior  to  our  cranberries. 

These  Mongols  also  bring  large  quantities  of 
butter,  sealed  up  in  the  stomachs  of  sheep,  as 
we  put  up  our  bologna  sausage,  though  foreigners, 


174  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

so  far  as  I  have  known,  have  not  been  very  good 
customers,  perhaps  because  of  the  greasy  and 
unbathed  appearance  of  the  merchants.  The 
Chinese  themselves  use  but  little,  if  indeed  they 
use  any,  butter,  and  they  say  of  us  that  we  carry 
about  with  us  a  butter  odour.  However  this 
may  be,  apart  from  the  matter  of  cleanliness,  the 
Chinese  do  not  smell  like  the  people  of  Europe. 
This  is  probably  due  to  the  kinds  of  oils  that 
go  to  make  up  a  large  portion  of  their  foods. 
There  are  three  kinds  of  food  common  to  us 
that  the  Chinese,  when  they  first  come  in  con- 
tact with  the  foreigner,  do  not  like.  These  are 
butter,  coffee,  and  cheese.  I  have  had  guests 
who  would  force  themselves  to  eat  these  things 
when  I  knew  that  the  very  odour  of  them  was 
offensive.  I  remember  one  evening  I  invited 
Professor  Lu — a  very  large,  corpulent  professor — 
of  the  Peking  University  to  dine  with  us.  It  was 
the  first  time  he  had  dined  in  a  foreign  home. 
My  table  boy  had  been  with  us  for  years,  and  I 
had  never  known  him  to  be  guilty  of  a  smile 
while  waiting  at  the  table.  During  the  dinner, 
when  he  passed  the  butter  to  Professor  Lu,  he 
was  about  to  take  half  that  was  on  the  dish. 
The  boy  gulped,  and  suggested  in  a  half-under- 
tone that  we  never  used  so  much.  Professor 
Lu,  perhaps  to  justify  his  mistake,  or  perhaps  to 
approve  himself  to  his  hostess,  explained,  also  in 
a  half-undertone  :  "lam  very  fond  of  butter." 
It  was  too  much  for  the  boy's  gravity,  though 
he  did  not  lose  his  equanimity.     But  I  have 


FOOD  175 

never  seen  a  boy  try  so  hard  to  preserve  his 
dignity,  and  be  polite  to  his  guest  and  a  credit 
to  his  mistress.  He  did  it,  but  it  was  a  task.  I 
have  had  Chinese  friends  say  to  me,  "  I  can  drink 
your  coffee,  and  eat  your  butter,  but  I  draw  the 
line  at  your  cheese." 

The  oils  used  by  the  Chinese  in  their  cooking, 
especially  in  the  north,  are  largely  sesame  and 
peanut  oils.  At  first,  while  passing  along  the 
street,  one  does  not  enjoy  the  smell  of  these  oils, 
but  after  a  time  they  whet  up  one's  appetite — 
perhaps  I  should  say  my  appetite — more  than 
the  odour  of  frying  ham  would  do.  Many 
foreigners  go  to  China  and  never  learn  to  like 
their  food.  All  I  have  to  say  is  that,  from  the 
deepest  depths  of  my  heart,  I  pity  them.  They 
do  not  know  what  they  are  missing  in  life. 

Many  people  also,  when  they  go  to  Chinese 
inns,  do  not  know  what  kind  of  food  to  ask  for. 
I  remember  once,  when  my  wife  and  I  were  about 
to  take  a  country  trip,  I  went  to  some  of  my 
Chinese  friends  and  said  to  them  : 

"  I  want  to  know  just  what  are  the  best  kinds 
of  common,  e very-day  food  one  can  get  on  the 
the  inns  on  this  particular  route." 

"  Get  yang  jou  tsuan  wan  tzu,"  said  one.  I 
ordered  them,  and  found  them  to  be  small  balls 
of  finely  hashed  mutton,  about  an  inch  in  dia- 
meter, that  had  a  good  deal  of  a  sausage  flavour, 
cooked  with  cabbage,  and  swimming  in  the  cab- 
bage broth.  I  cannot  write  about  them  now, 
sixteen  years  after,  without  a  longing. 


17G  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

"  Get  yang  jou  ssu,"  said  another.  I  was 
familiar  with  this  dish.  It  is  mutton  cut  up 
in  strings  and  fried  with  vegetables.  Before 
putting  in  the  meat  and  vegetables,  they  heat  the 
frying-pan,  and  pour  into  it  a  bit  of  hsiang  yu, 
sesame  oil,  which  imparts  a  flavour  that  sends 
mutton  chops  back  to  the  kitchen,  and  cold  beef 
to  the  pantry.  Indeed,  where  it  comes  to  cold 
meats  of  any  kind  as  they  appear  on  our  tables, 
I  would  as  soon  chew  dried  leather,  when  com- 
pared with  the  juicy,  well-flavoured  Chinese 
dishes,  with  their  bowl  of  well-cooked  rice. 

Let  me  confess  here  that  you  have  to  learn  to 
eat  Chinese  food.  I  did  not  like  it  the  first  time 
— nor  the  first  few  times — I  tried  it.  But  it  is 
an  undertaking  that  richly  rewards  the  one  who 
learns  to  do  it  well.  They  have  a  way  of  baking 
— or  cooking — large  pieces  of  fat  pork,  covered 
with  rice  flour,  which  makes  it  one  of  the  most 
delicious  mouthfuls  I  have  ever  tasted.  I  am 
told  also  that  it  is  so  digestible  that  one  can  eat 
almost  any  quantity  without  suffering  from  in- 
digestion. I  do  not  know  how  much  of  it  one 
could  eat  without  serious  consequences ;  I  usually 
got  it  at  a  feast,  where  I  was  compelled  to  limit 
my  own  indulgence  in  order  that  I  might  par- 
take of  the  other  good  things.  And  let  me  say 
right  here  that  when  I  attended  a  Chinese  noon- 
day feast,  I  never  was  known  to  eat  an  evening 
meal  at  home.  That  would  have  been  a  species 
of  sacrilege  of  which  I  would  not  have  been 
guilty.     I  always  rested  at  least  for  one  night 


FOOD  177 

in  the  memory  of  the  good  things  of  which  I  had 
partaken. 

It  would  be  impossible  in  a  short  chapter  like 
this  to  try  to  indulge  in  any  eulogy  of  sharks' 
fins,  birds'-nest  soup,  chicken  soup,  egg  soup,  or 
the  delicious  lotus-seed  broth  that  one  gets  at 
certain  seasons  of  the  year.  Those  who  do  not 
know  what  birds'-nest  soup  is  will  be  interested 
to  learn  that  there  is  a  bird  in  the  south  that 
expectorates  a  kind  of  a  gelatinous  substance  of 
which  it  builds  its  nest  on  the  sides  of  inaccessible 
cliffs,  where  they  are  very  difficult  to  secure.  It 
is  this  that  makes  it  so  expensive.  Some  of  my 
friends  to  whom  I  have  given  this  explanation, 
have  expressed  their  sentiments  by  a  peculiar 
curl  of  the  lip  and  a  twitching  of  the  nose,  and 
said  they  would  not  eat  it  if  it  were  saliva.  And 
then  I  called  their  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
bee— but  you  may  look  up  the  composition  of 
honey  yourself— this  chapter  is  about  Chinese 
foods. 

I  wish  I  could  give  a  description  of  any  one  of 
a  number  of  Chinese  feasts  that  I  have  attended. 
This  would  convey  to  the  reader  some  idea  of 
the  food  that  is  eaten  in  that  particular  locality. 
But  the  flavours — the  flavours — how  is  it  pos- 
sible to  carry  to  your  olfactory  nerves  flavours 
that  will  set  the  salivary  glands  to  working,  and 
put  you  in  a  gastronomic  mood  that  would  be 
truly  mesmeric  ?  Why,  if  your  arms  were  but 
wings,  the  flavours  coming  from  the  kitchen 
while  you  are  partaking  of  pumpkin  and  water- 


12 


178  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

melon  seeds,  apples,  pears,  and  other  fruit,  or 
cubes  of  fruit  jelly,  would  be  like  gentle  breezes 
beneath  your  armpits  that  would  carry  you 
into  the  regions  of  celestial  bliss.  And  then  you 
have  to  be  so  careful  not  to  overdo  these  first 
courses  of  fruit,  and  seeds,  and  nuts,  or  the 
second  course  of  the  most-deliciously  sweet  lotus- 
seed  broth,  on  which  you  want  to  make  a  full 
meal,  lest  you  interfere  with  the  courses  that 
follow.  For  here  comes  fish,  done  to  a  turn,  in  a 
way  and  with  a  taste,  that  no  European  chef 'has 
ever  thought  of,  and  so  tender  that  you  can  pick 
it  off  in  bits  with  your  chop-sticks  without  inter- 
fering in  any  way  with  the  skeleton  or  the  bones. 
And  then  you  do  not  have  any  personal  or  pri- 
vate plate,  on  which  a  certain  quantity  is  placed, 
and  you  have  to  eat  it  whether  you  like  it  or  not, 
but  all  the  dishes  stand  in  the  middle  of  the 
table,  and  after  the  polite  formalities  of  being 
helped  by  your  host  are  over,  each  one  "  goes 
as  he  pleases,"  and  takes  the  things  that  best 
suit  his  taste.  You  have  a  little  dish  before  you 
on  which  you  may  place  bits  of  skin,  or  bones, 
peeling  or  seeds,  or  other  inedible  or  indigestible 
portions,  but  no  plate  on  which  you  are  served. 
Then  may  come  the  fowl — it  may  be  duck  or 
chicken,  or  some  other  fowl — whole  or  in  tiny 
bits.  If  whole,  it,  like  the  fish,  is  done  so  tender 
that  you  may  pick  it  off  in  portions  suited  to 
your  taste.  Oh,  for  the  time  when  we  shall 
have  learned  that  it  is  the  business  of  servants 
to  carve,  and  not  the  work  of  a  host  ;  when  we 


FOOD  179 

shall  not  bring  fowls  to  the  table  lying  upon  their 
backs  like  corpses,  with  feet  and  head  amputated 
and  stumps  of  legs  sticking  up  into  the  atmos- 
phere, for  an  inexperienced  host,  unfamiliar  with 
their  anatomy,  to  have  to  hunt  for  their  joints 
with  a  dull  carving-knife,  and  shovel  dressing 
from  their  interior  in  an  inartistic  way,  a  large 
portion  of  which  he  scatters  on  the  table-cloth. 
But  I  desist.     It  is  impossible  to  go  through 
with  a  twenty-seven  course  dinner  in  a  short 
chapter  without  omitting  their  steamed  bread, 
which  is  finally  brought  on  in  small  loaves  the 
size  of  biscuits,  beautifully  decorated  with  harm- 
less spots  of  red  colouring  matter  of  some  vege- 
table dies  ;    or  the  salt  vegetables,  or  the  sour 
pickles,  or  the  pungent  flavourings,  or  the  sweet 
cakes,  or  the  acrid  condiments — for  the  Chinese 
give  particular  attention  to  the  five  flavourings 
at  every  feast,  always  ascertaining  that  they  are 
i  properly  prepared  or  blended.     With  the  bread 
i  — or  in  place  of  it — may  come  the  rice  for  filling, 
;  on  the  same  principle  as  the  animal  takes  its  hay. 
It  will  be  observed  the  Chinese  do  everything 
ithe  opposite  of  what  we  do.     They  live  on  the 
under  side  of  the  world — their  feet  are  in  this 
.direction  and  their  heads  in  the  opposite  from 
liour  own,  and  so  they  seem  to  do  everything  con- 
trary to  what  we  do.     Or  as  they  did  it  so  long 
before  we  did,  perhaps  it  is  we  who  do  it  back- 
i  wards.     At  any  rate,  they  take  their  fruit  and 
nuts  at  the  beginning  of  their  meal  and  their 
soup  at  the  end.     I  wonder  if  we  have  made  a 


180  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

scientific  study  of  the  order  in  which  our  food 
should  be  taken,  or  do  we  take  it  more  or  less 
hit  or  miss  because  our  ancestors  did  it  that  way. 

One  or  two  of  a  thousand  kinds  of  food  that 
I  have  not  yet  mentioned  is  their  bean-curd, 
a  food  for  the  common  people  in  North  China, 
made  from  pulverizing  the  beans  into  a  flour  and 
then  boiling  this  milk-like  concoction,  letting  the 
curd  rise  to  the  top  as  our  grandams  made  cot- 
tage cheese.  At  first  one  does  not  like  it — but 
I  desist  on  account  of  my  salivary  glands.  Then 
they  make  bean  butter  of  various  kinds — black, 
green,  or  red,  according  to  the  colour  of  the  beans 
— and  all  kinds  of  preserved  fruits.  They  sugar 
nuts — English  walnuts,  hazel-nuts,  almonds, 
apricot  seeds,  pine  seeds,  and  all  kinds  of  fruits. 
Then  they  sugar  fruit,  such  as  the  substitute 
for  cranberries,  mentioned  in  the  earlier  part  of 
the  chapter,  grapes,  and  apples,  stick  a  thin 
bamboo  slip  through  them,  and,  urn,  but  they  are 
good. 

And  finally  they  hash  up  meat  and  vegetables 
in  a  large  quantity,  make  up  a  batch  of  dough, 
press  it  out  in  the  thinnest  little  wafers,  and  roll 
up  in  each  of  them  a  bit  of  the  hash,  making  a 
kind  of  a  dumpling  called  chu  po  po,  or  cooked 
or  steamed  dumpling.  If  you  are  inclined  tol 
think  that  such  a  coarse  dinner  wrapped  up  inl 
dough  is  not  good,  you  ask  my  children,  or  any 
other  children  that  have  been  brought  up  in 
China.  But  I  think  my  wife's  favourite  fooc 
was  pao  ping,  thin  cakes,  in  which  she  woulc 


FOOD  181 

wrap  up  a  collection  of  strips  of  onion,  meat,  or 
other  hashed  meat  and  vegetables,  roll  them 
into  a  kind  of  a  tube,  double  up  one  end  so  they 
would  not  leak,  and  then  begin  at  the  top  and 
eat  down  to  where  all  the  best  juices  were 
collected  for  the  last  bite. 

My  favourite  Chinese  food  ?    Oh,  I  just  take 
any  kind  and  am  grateful  and  happy. 


CHAPTER   XX 

SHOPS    AND    MARKETS 

AFTER  an  American  friend  had  been  with 
Z-\  me  in  Peking,  shopping  in  the  stores  of 
-*  *>  Liu  Li  Ch'ang,  the  great  book  and 
curio  street  of  the  capital,  he  left  the  north 
and  went  to  Central  China,  whence  he  wrote 
me  :  "I'm  sorry  I  did  not  stay  in  the  north  ; 
you  can  get  what  you  want  there  much  more 
easily  and  satisfactorily  than  in  any  other  part 
of  the  country." 

This  I  think  is  true  of  curios,  jade,  and  the 
best  old  porcelain,  but  not  of  things  in  general. 
Each  section  of  China  has  its  own  peculiar 
productions  of  field,  orchard,  forest,  land,  and 
brain.  The  best  linen  embroidery  is  made  as 
far  south  as  Canton,  while  the  embroidery  of 
silks  and  satins,  as  well  as  their  manufacture, 
is  done  in  the  region  of  the  Yangtze  Valley. 
The  best  ivory  carving  is  done  in  the  south, 
as  is  also  the  best  carving  of  bamboo  and  teak 
wood.  Seven-tenths  of  the  artists  have  been 
developed  in  the  lake  region  of  Central  China, 
while  a  large  proportion  of  the  other  three- 
tenths  have  come  from  Ssu-ch'uan,  the  great 
province  of  the  West.     But  as  I  have  had  the 

182 


SHOPS    AND    MARKETS  183 

pleasure  of  conducting  a  large  number  of 
prominent  people  about  the  shops  and  markets 
of  Peking,  I  shall  venture  to  take  the  reader 
with  me  on  some  of  these  tours. 

While  Mr.  William  Jennings  Bryan  was  in 
Peking,  I  had  the  honour  of  having  him  dine 
with  me,  and  the  pleasure  of  conducting  him 
about  certain  parts  of  the  city.  He  wanted  to 
get  some  of  the  best  Chinese  curios,  and  so 
we  went  to  Liu  Li  Ch'ang.  Now  I  should 
remark  that  the  Chinese  do  everything  the 
opposite  of  what  we  do.  Go  down  one  of  your 
own  great  business  streets,  and  as  you  look 
into  the  windows,  you  will  observe  that  the 
best  things  in  the  store  are  arranged  there  for 
display.  A  Chinese  merchant  never  does  this. 
He  takes  it  for  granted  that  you  know  what 
you  desire  before  you  come,  and  he  hangs  out 
no  bait  to  tempt  you  to  buy  things  that  you 
do  not  want.  As  we  were  passing  down  the 
street  I  stopped  in  front  of  one  of  the  shops 
and  said  : 

"  We'll  go  in  here." 

"  Oh,  that  is  a  junk  shop,  isn't  it  ?  "  said 
Mr.  Bryan. 

"  No,"  I  answered,  "  this  is  a  curio  shop." 

It  did  look  like  a  junk  shop.  There  was 
nothing  attractive  in  the  front  room.  A  few 
old  cash,  or  ink-slabs,  a  few  pieces  of  common 
porcelain,  some  old  swords  and  other  things, 
but  nothing  worth  while. 

And  this  is  done  designedly.     He  makes  his 


184  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

first  impressions  upon  you  with  these  old  things. 
He  then  took  us  into  the  next  room,  where  he 
had  some  fairly  good  things.  After  we  had 
looked  at  these,  he  ushered  us  into  a  room  still 
further  back,  where  he  had  some  very  good 
samples,  and,  after  we  had  feasted  our  eyes  upon 
these  for  a  time,  he  opened  up  the  last  little 
cubby-hole  in  the  back  part  of  his  shop,  where 
he  had  all  his  most  beautiful  things  locked  up, 
and  he  never  shows  them  to  anyone  except 
those  whom  he  thinks  will  appreciate  them. 

On  another  occasion  Mr.  Burt,  a  former  Presi- 
dent of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad,  was  stop- 
ping with  Major  Conger,  the  American  Minister, 
and  wanted  to  get  some  choice  pieces  of  China's 
best  porcelain.  I  was  asked  if  I  could  go  with 
Mr.  Burt,  which  I  was  glad  to  do.  Among  the 
large  shops  on  the  Curio  Street,  we  found  a  large 
and  very  fine  specimen  of  a  Yung  Cheng  vase. 

"  Ask  him  how  much  he  wants  for  it,"  said 
Mr.  Burt. 

I  did  so,  and  he  answered  : 

"  Three  hundred  fifty  dollars." 

"  I  think  I  shall  get  it,"  said  Mr.  Burt,  "  but 
I  won't  do  it  to-day." 

During  the  mornings  I  was  always  busy  with 
my  work  and  could  not  go  shopping  with  any- 
one, and  so  the  next  forenoon,  while  Mr.  Burt, 
and  a  friend  who  could  talk  some  Chinese,  were 
wandering  along  this  street,  they  dropped  into 
this  shop  again,  and  inquired  the  price  of  the  vase. 

"  Four  hundred  dollars,"  said  the  dealer. 


*a 


*r 


:M- 


S&*. 


CHILDREN'S  GAMES:  THE  CAT  CATCHING   THE   MOUSE 


SHOPS    AND    MARKETS  185 

"  But,"  said  Mr.  Burt,  "  he  told  Mr.  Headland 
yesterday  that  it  was  three  hundred  fifty 
dollars." 

"  Four  hundred  dollars,"  repeated  the  mer- 
chant. 

When  I  called  on  Mr.  Burt  that  afternoon,  he 
said  to  me  : 

"  How  much  did  that  man  want  for  that  large 
Yung  Cheng  vase  ?  " 

"  Three  hundred  fifty  dollars,"  I  answered. 

"  Well,  we  were  down  there  this  morning  and 
he  asked  us  four  hundred  for  it." 

"  We'll  inquire  again  this  afternoon,"  I  said. 

When  we  got  to  the  shop  I  said  to  the  dealer  : 

"  How  much  is  this  vase  ?  " 

"  Three  hundred  fifty  dollars,"  he  answered. 

I  turned  to  Mr.  Burt  and  said  : 

"  He  says  the  price  is  three  hundred  fifty 
dollars." 

"  Well,  he  told  us  four  hundred  this  morning." 

I  said  to  the  dealer,  "  Why  did  you  do  that  ?  " 

"  To  give  you  face,"  he  answered. 

The  dealer  thought  that  they  suspected  that 
I  was  getting  a  commission  on  the  vase,  and 
that  they  might  be  able  to  buy  it  cheaper  if  they 
were  alone,  and  he  proposed  to  show  them  that 
I  was  an  honest  man,  and  rather  than  sell  it  to 
them  at  the  same  price  he  offered  it  when  I  was 
with  them,  he  would  run  the  risk  of  losing  the 
sale.  Such  is  the  attitude  of  a  Chinese  merchant 
to  his  friend. 

The  Agricultural  Department  of  the  United 


186  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

States  sent  a  gentleman  to  North  China  to  obtain, 
if  possible,  grafts  of  all  the  fruit  and  nut  trees, 
and,  indeed,  all  the  productions  of  China  that 
might  be  transferred  or  transplanted  to  the 
United  States.  He  came  to  me  to  inquire  as 
to  the  best  method  of  getting  them.  I  said  to 
him  : 

'  Let  us  go  to  the  fruit  market  and  see  the 
fruits,  and  then  we  can  inquire  as  to  where  each 
kind  is  grown,  then  you  can  go  where  they  are 
grown  and  get  grafts  from  the  trees." 

The  reader  should  understand  that  the  Chinese 
have  most  of  the  shops  of  a  kind  on  a  single  street. 
I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  this  is  an  absolute  rule. 
But  if  you  want  to  buy  a  pipe  you  would  natu- 
rally go  to  Pipe  Street,  if  you  wanted  a  lantern 
you  would  go  to  Lantern  Street,  and  so,  if  you 
wanted  fruit,  you  would  go  to  this  fruit  market, 
where  you  may  buy  samples  or  quantities  of  every 
kind  of  fruit  grown  in  North  China.  My  friend 
asked  me  to  tell  them  what  he  wanted,  and,  in 
a  few  moments,  he  had  samples  of  the  various 
kinds  of  fruit  with  the  directions  as  to  where  he 
could  obtain  the  grafts,  and  he  told  me  after  re- 
turning from  his  trip  through  the  country  that  he 
had  sent  tens  of  thousands  of  grafts  to  the  United 
States.  "  And,"  said  he,  "  I  hope  soon  to  have 
persimmons  on  the  fruit-stands  in  America  as 
abundant  and  as  cheap  as  bananas." 

One  day  while  assisting  Mrs.  Bronson,  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  women  I  have  ever  known, 
the  mother  of  the  wife  of  one  of  our  prominent 


SHOPS    AND    MARKETS  187 

American  diplomats,  to  secure  some  of  China's 
choicest  productions,  she  said  to  me  : 

"  I  should  like  to  get  some  good  Chinese  tea." 

"  Very  well,"  I  answered,  "  we  will  stop  at  a 
tea-shop." 

As  we  passed  along  the  street  in  our  jinrikishas 
I  saw  the  men  in  one  of  the  shops  sorting  the  tea 
on  the  counter,  for  my  readers,  of  course,  under- 
stand that  the  front  of  the  shop  is  all  removed 
during  the  day,  and  it  is  opened  upon  the  street, 
where  everything  is  exposed  to  view,  usually  in 
jars  or  boxes.  We  dismounted  where  the  men 
were  taking  out  all  the  whole  leaves  that  had 
curled  up  into  a  beautiful  roll,  putting  them  aside, 
and  separating  them  from  the  broken  or  half- 
powdered  leaves,  and  I  said  to  them  : 

"  This  lady  wants  a  catty  (about  a  pound  and 
a  third)  of  your  best  tea." 

They  looked  at  Mrs.  Bronson  with  admiration 
and  respect — what  an  asset  beauty  and  physical 
perfection  is  to  a  person  ! — and  then  went  and 
brought  it  in  a  tray  where  she  could  see  it,  and 
it  being  satisfactory,they  put  up  in  a  box,  where 
it  could  not  be  crushed,  a  catty,  for  which  she 
paid  nine  ounces  of  silver — at  that  time  almost 
nine  dollars  gold. 

But  I  have  been  talking  of  curios  when  you 
want  to  know  about  the  ordinary  every-day 
things  of  life.  Out  on  the  great  street,  not  two 
hundred  yards  from  where  I  have  lived  for  six- 
teen years,  was  a  shop  in  which  one  could  pur- 
chase anything  in  the  way  of  dry  goods — cotton, 


188  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

silk,  or  wool — that  one  might  wish  in  the  home. 
The  foreign  customer  was  not  expected  to  stand 
at  the  counter  waiting,  but  would  be  taken  into 
a  small  room,  where  he  would  be  served  alone. 

On  this  same  street,  about  daylight,  there 
would  gather  from  all  the  country  round  about, 
vendors  of  all  kinds  of  vegetables  that  are  found 
on  the  fortieth  parallel.  These  they  bring  on 
wheel-barrows,  or  in  baskets  slung  on  poles  which 
they  carry — one  basket  between  two  men,  or 
two  baskets  on  the  ends  of  a  pole  carried  on  the 
shoulder  of  one  man.  And  just  here  I  might 
add  that  the  Chinese  have  a  proverb  which  says  : 
/  ke  jen  t'iao  Hang  t'ung  shua  ;  Hang  ke  jen  t'ai  i 
t'ung  shua ;  san  kejen,  mei  shua.  "  One  servant 
will  carry  two  pails  of  water,  two  servants  will 
carry  one  pail  of  water  ;  three  servants  and  you 
have  no  water."  Isn't  that  folksy  ?  The  more 
servants  you  have  the  less  work  you  get  done. 

Well,  your  cook,  and  other  servants,  go  out  to 
this  market  and  buy  a  t'iao  tze  of  cabbage,  the 
two  baskets  that  one  man  carries,  at  wholesale 
rates.  He  brings  it  home,  and  they  use  it, 
selling  all  the  time  to  you  from  this  wholesale 
stock,  at  retail  rates,  which  is  a  perfectly  honest 
deal,  and  they  divide  the  profits.  Then  your 
boy  takes  your  empty  fruit-cans  that  you  throw 
away,  keeps  them  in  a  box  in  some  dry  place, 
until  the  rag-picker  comes  around  with  his  shop 
on  his  shoulder,  in  the  form  of  two  baskets  on  a 
pole,  when  the  boy  exchanges  all  those  empty 
fruit-cans  or  tins  for  matches,  which  he  sells  to 


SHOPS    AND    MARKETS  189 

you.  Which  again  is  an  absolutely  honest  deal, 
as  it  keeps  your  backyard  from  being  littered  up 
with  empty  fruit-tins. 

In  various  quarters  of  all  Chinese  cities  the 
vegetable  markets  convene  out  under  the  open 
sky  at  or  about  sunrise,  and  the  farmers  or 
truck  gardeners  are  soon  on  their  way  home  with 
a  string  of  cash  or  two  in  each  basket  in  exchange 
for  their  cabbage,  onions,  turnips,  cucumbers, 
melons,  garlic,  or  other  edibles  ;  though  in  the 
open  ports  such  as  Shanghai,  there  are  covered 
market-places,  not  unlike  those  of  our  Western 
cities.  Vegetable  stalls  or  vendors  buy  quan- 
tities of  this  truck  from  the  farmers  at  wholesale, 
which  they  in  turn  retail  to  their  customers. 

One  thing  under  the  old  regime  which  was  very 
different  from  anything  we  see  in  the  West  was 
the  butchers'  shops  on  the  side  walk,  or  shall  we 
say  between  the  side  walk  and  the  street.  Some 
time  during  the  day,  a  sheep  or  two,  or  even  more, 
would  be  held,  its  throat  cut,  the  blood  caught 
in  a  small  tub,  and  used.  The  sheep  would  then 
be  skinned  on  the  side  walk,  hung  up  and  dis- 
embowelled, and  the  whole  process  performed 
there  on  the  street  with  scarcely  a  drop  of  blood 
falling  on  the  ground.  At  the  same  time,  two 
or  three  street  dog-scavengers  would  be  standing 
by  waiting  to  lick  up  the  blood  if  it  did  drop, 
though  they  never  offered  to  touch  the  hanging 
meat.  One  would  naturally  think  that  mutton 
butchered  in  that  way  would  have  a  mutton 
flavour.     It    did   not.     Indeed,    I    have   never 


190  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

eaten  better  mutton  chops  anywhere  in  the 
world  than  mutton  or  lamb  butchered  thus  on 
the  streets  of  Peking. 

I  have  reserved  for  the  last  of  this  chapter 
the  most  interesting  of  all  shops  to  many  of  the 
foreign  tourists  to  China — the  fur  and  em- 
broidery shops.  Often  have  I  gone  with  com- 
panies of  tourists  to  visit  these  shops  and  listened 
to  them  raving  over  the  gowns  that  the  Chinese 
had  cast  off  for  new  ones  from  other  shops  with 
which  I  was  also  familiar.  The  colours  of  these 
old  clothes  were  toned  down  by  years  of  wear, 
so  that  they  were  more  attractive  in  certain  ways. 
But  the  richness  of  the  new  goods  was  to  me  so 
much  more  attractive  that  I  stood  quietly  by 
and  listened  to  them  raving.  Usually  when 
friends  wished  to  get  these  things,  I  sent  for  the 
shopkeeper,  and  asked  him  to  bring  what  they 
wanted  to  our  home — it  was  a  case  of  the  moun- 
tain coming  to  Mohammed. 

I  remember  once  Mr.  Henry  Phipps  telephoned 
me  from  Tientsin,  asking  if  I  would  get  him  three 
sable  and  three  ermine  mandarin  robes.  I  assured 
him  it  would  be  easy  to  do  so.  I  spoke  to  the 
fur  dealer  ;  he  brought  what  I  wanted  to  my  own 
door,  with  the  understanding  that  if  ever  he 
allowed  me  to  send  to  my  friends  anything  that 
would  cause  me  to  lose  face  when  I  saw  them, 
he  would  never  be  forgiven.  And  I  have  never 
had  occasion  to  be  ashamed  of  the  bargains  that 
my  Chinese  merchant  friends  sent  to  those  who 
asked  me  to  serve  them.     Indeed,  Mr.  Bryan 


SHOPS    AND    MARKETS  191 

wrote  me  from  London,  "  The  mandarin  sable 
robe  we  got  for  Mrs.  Bryan,  says  my  furrier,  is 
worth  twice  what  we  paid  for  it,"  and  I  feel  like 
confirming  what  the  European  business  men  of 
China  say,  that  "  The  Chinaman's  word  is  as 
good  as  his  bond." 


CHAPTER  XXI 

EXPENSE   OF   LIVING 

ONE  day,  when  a  Chinese  official  was  calling 
|  on  me,  I  said  to  him  : 
"  Can  you  tell  me  about  what  your 
expense  of  living  is  per  moon  ?  "  for  they  esti- 
mate everything  there  by  the  moon,  and  not 
by  the  week  or  by  the  day  as  we  do. 

"  I  give  my  cook  sixty- five  taels  (sixty-five 
ounces  of  silver,  about  the  same  in  American 
gold  at  that  time),  to  board  my  family  per 
moon,"  he  answered. 

"  And  how  many  mouths  have  you  in  your 
home  ?  "  I  inquired. 

"  Seventeen,"  he  answered,  "  not  including 
the  servants." 

"  And  does  he  have  to  get  his  own  wages  out 
of  that  amount  ?  "  I  asked  further. 

"  Yes,  and  his  food  as  well,"  explained  the 
official. 

"  And  suppose  he  does  not  furnish  you  with 
food  which  you  think  that  amount  of  money 
should  supply,  what  do  you  do  ?  "  I  inquired. 

"  Then  I  dismiss  him,"  he  replied.  "  You 
see,"  he  continued,  "  it  is  too  much  trouble  for 
us  to  attend  to  buying,  ordering,  estimating,  and 

192 


EXPENSE    OF    LIVING  193 

attending  to  such  details,  when  that  is  his  busi- 
ness. So  I  simply  tell  him  that  we  have  seven- 
teen mouths  to  feed,  and  if  he  can  do  it,  and 
supply  us  with  good  food,  very  well ;  if  not,  we 
will  find  someone  else." 

"  In  case  you  invite  friends  to  dine  with  you, 
is  that  included  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  No.  When  I  invite  friends,  I  allow  him  a 
certain  amount  per  mouth,  and  tell  him  how 
many  dishes  I  want  for  the  dinner,  and  he  sup- 
plies them." 

The  expense  of  living  in  China  depends  a  good 
deal  upon  the  service  one  demands  and  the  kinds 
of  food  he  orders,  just  as  it  does  in  Europe  and 
America.  You  go  to  an  ordinary  restaurant  in 
New  York  and  order  ham  and  eggs  and  you  pay 
twenty-five  cents  for  them,  half  of  that  being 
profit  to  the  keeper  of  the  restaurant.  Go  to 
the  Astoria  and  put  in  the  same  order,  and  you 
pay  $1.25  with  a  tip  to  the  servant  who  waits  on 
you — in  other  words,  for  twelve  and  a  half  cents' 
worth  of  food  you  pay  ten  times  that  amount  for 
a  certain  method  of  delivering  it.  I  do  not  ex- 
aggerate in  this  matter.  The  common  labourer 
in  New  York  can  get  a  full  dinner  for  fifteen  cents, 
while  the  business  man  or  society  woman  pays 
three  dollars  for  an  ordinary  dinner  at  a  fashion- 
able hotel. 

The  same  thing  is  true  in  China,  although 

prices  there  are  not  quite  so  high  as  they  are 

here,    because    both    labour    and    service    are 

cheaper.     The  price  of  wheat-flour,  rice,  corn- 

13 


194  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

meal,  potatoes,  sweet  potatoes,  and  the  various 
kinds  of  fruit  and  meats  all  over  the  world  is 
nearly  the  same,  depending  somewhat  upon 
transportation,  but  more  upon  labour  and  ser- 
vice, and  so  living  in  China  would  not  be  very 
different  from  what  it  is  elsewhere  except  for 
the  way  they  live. 

In  the  Peking  University,  where  I  have  taught 
for  sixteen  years,  we  are  able  to  keep  a  boy  for 
thirty  dollars  a  year,  paying  his  board,  and 
having  almost  half  of  that  amount  left  for  fire, 
light,  and  tuition.  We  employ  a  cook  on  the 
basis  that  he  hires  his  own  help,  and  we  pay  him 
one  dollar  seventy-five  cents  ($1.75)  per  month 
for  boarding  each  boy,  he  being  expected  to  get 
his  own  food  and  wages,  and  that  of  his  assis- 
tants, out  of  this  amount.  School  keeps  nine 
months  of  the  year,  making  a  total  of  $15.75  that 
we  pay  the  cook  for  boarding  each  boy,  and  we 
have  $14.25  of  the  $30  for  fire,  light,  and  tuition. 

You  ask  what  we  give  them  for  this  amount  ? 
I  answer,  they  have  rice  at  least  once  a  day,  with 
salt  turnips  and  cabbage  or  other  vegetables. 
They  have  corn-meal  made  into  wo  wo  t'ou — a 
kind  of  a  cake  which  is  slapped  on  the  side  of  a 
pot  in  which  cabbage  is  cooking.  The  heat  of 
the  fire  bakes  the  cake  on  the  pot  side  while  the 
steam  of  the  cabbage  steams  it  on  the  other  side 
— sq  that,  like  Ephraim,  it  is  a  cake  unturned. 
Salt  turnip  and  cabbage  or  other  vegetables  go 
with  this,  while  at  noon  they  have  for  their  lunch 
two  small  wheat-cakes  about  three  inches  in  dia- 


EXPENSE    OF   LIVING  195 

meter,  covered  with  sesame  seeds,  which  are 
parched  in  the  baking.  This  diet  is  varied  by 
having  steamed  bread,  made  of  wheat-flour,  al- 
ternate with  the  rice  or  corn-meal.  Sometimes 
in  the  morning  they  have  gruel  made  of  millet, 
eaten  without  sugar  or  milk,  of  course,  for  it  is 
such  things  as  sugar,  milk,  butter,  meat,  spreads, 
pickles,  and  coffee,  with  the  great  variety  of  vege- 
tables, desserts,  and  fruit,  that  makes  our  living 
— actual  living — expensive. 

You  ask,  Can  students  work  well,  and  keep  in 
good  health  on  such  diet  as  this  ?  My  answer 
is  that  we  have  never  had  a  student  break  down 
in  health  as  a  result  of  the  food,  and  that  their 
work  is  done  so  well  that  the  graduates  from  that 
institution  are  able  to  enter  many  of  our  best 
American  colleges  for  post-graduate  work  with- 
out examination. 

Take  now  the  expense  of  living  to  the  coun- 
tryman— the  farmer  or  truck-gardener.  His 
corn  or  wheat  goes  directly  from  the  field  to 
the  women  of  the  household,  who  grind  it,  knead 
it,  bake  it,  and  serve  it.  Your  wheat  is  harvested 
by  expensive  labourers,  with  expensive  machi- 
nery, transported  long  distances  to  mills  run  by 
expensive  machinery.  The  flour  goes  through 
the  hands  of  a  wholesaler,  retailer,  baker,  and 
grocer  before  it  gets  to  you — the  wonder  is  that 
you  can  get  it  as  cheap  as  you  do,  especially 
when  you  estimate  the  expense  of  the  various 
forms  of  advertizing  of  miller  and  baker. 

I  wish  my  readers  who  complain  about  the 


196  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

price  of  living  would  examine  what  they  have 
upon  their  own  tables.  Let  them  cut  out  butter, 
milk,  cheese,  meat,  sugar,  coffee,  fruit  and  des- 
serts, together  with  all  expensive  condiments, 
and  confine  themselves  to  the  substantiate  of 
living,  and  we  would  have  less  cause  for  com- 
plaint. However,  the  same  thing  that  prevails 
here,  prevails  there.  Men  live  according  to  their 
income.  The  great  mass  of  mankind  increase 
their  living  expenses  as  they  increase  their  salary. 
And  there  are  a  lot  of  women  waiting  to  find  a 
man  whose  money  they  can  help  to  spend.  These 
same  people  feed  until  they  contract  some 
chronic  illness,  then  go  to  a  sanitorium  where 
they  pay  thirty  to  thirty-five  dollars  per  week 
to  be  put  on  a  diet  of  the  substantiate  of  life. 
Suppose  you  inquire  at  your  sanitorium — or  any 
sanitorium — as  to  the  cause  of  most  of  the  ills 
that  come  there,  and  see  if  you  do  not  get  as  an 
answer  "  Over-eating." 

The  common,  coolie  labourer,  who  helped  to 
build  my  house  in  Peking,  worked  for  the  con- 
tractor for  five  cents  a  day  and  his  board.  His 
board  consisted  of  rice  which  had  fermented  in 
the  imperial  granaries,  and  which  he  preferred 
to  fresh  white  rice,  a  few  salt  vegetables,  and 
onions,  with  perhaps  a  small  dish  of  beans  and 
soy.  How  much  his  living  cost  the  contractor 
I  cannot  say,  and  I  doubt  if  he  could  per  man — 
or  per  mouth — for  this  is  the  only  way  the 
Chinese  have  of  estimating,  You  ask  if  they 
can  live  and  labour  on  that  kind  of  fare  ?     My 


EXPENSE    OF   LIVING  197 

only  answer  must  be  that  there  are  four  hundred 
millions  of  Chinese,  many  of  them  labouring  and 
living  on  less  nutritive  and  palatable  fare  than 
that  given  to  our  students. 

There  is  a  kind  of  living  that  I  hesitated  to 
put  in  the  chapter  on  food.  As  one  passes  along 
the  streets  of  a  Chinese  city  he  will  find  in  one 
place  a  vendor  of  food  in  the  springtime,  with 
a  big  pot  of  boiled  green  corn  which  has  been 
pulled  when  the  grains  are  filled,  but  before  they 
have  ripened,  and  this  man  furnishes  them  for  a 
few  cash  to  the  hungry  wayfarers  as  they  pass 
on  their  way.  In  another  place,  one  may  see  a 
man  in  the  autumn  or  winter  with  a  large  pot 
of  boiling  hot  sweet  potatoes,  which  he  retails  to 
the  hungry  crowd  at  so  much  per  ounce.  At 
still  another  place,  a  man  may  be  found  with  a 
pot  of  cooked  liver,  kidney,  and  especially  en- 
trails, which  they  cut  up  into  short  bits  and  wash 
clean,  and  then  cook  in  this  pot  by  the  wayside 
and  allow  him  of  the  corn  or  sweet  potato  to 
finish  his  meal.  While  on  almost  any  street 
corner,  in  the  autumn  and  early  winter,  one  may 
obtain  a  persimmon,  as  large  as  a  very  large 
tomato,  for  one-fifth  of  a  cent — or  shall  I  say  at 
the  rate  of  two  for  a  farthing.  Should  he  wish 
something  in  the  form  of  bread  he  may  buy  a 
shao-ping,  or  small  cake,  at  the  rate  of  a  cash 
or  two  apiece.  Now  in  a  cent  he  would  have 
ten  large,  or  twenty  small,  cash,  and  for  about 
two  cents,  or  a  penny,  he  would  be  able  to  make 
a  fairly  decent  meal. 


198  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

And  now  let  us  go  from  this  common  fare  of 
the  coolie  or  wayfarer  on  the  street  to  a  dinner 
given  by  a  merchant,  a  gentleman,  or  an  official 
to  his  friends  at,  shall  we  say,  a  restaurant  or 
an  inn.  As  a  usual  thing  he  does  not  pay  per 
mouth,  but  according  to  the  number  of  dishes 
served  at  this  particular  dinner — it  may  be  on 
the  scale  of  four,  eight,  or  sixteen  dishes.  The 
ordinary  Chinese  table  is  square  and  accommo- 
dates four  people  ;  but  for  a  larger  number  a 
round  top  is  put  upon  this  square  table  which 
will  accommodate  eight  or  ten  people.  The 
dinner  will  consist  of  eight  large  dishes,  eight 
small  dishes,  and  sixteen  other  smaller  dishes,  in 
all  of  which  care  will  be  taken  by  the  caterer  to 
blend,  or  to  allow  his  guest  to  blend,  the  five 
flavours — salt,  sweet,  sour,  bitter,  and  acrid. 
In  the  large  dishes  we  may  have  either  sharks' 
fins,  birds'  nest,  or  silver  fungus  soup ;  then 
perhaps  a  large  fish,  a  duck  or  a  chicken,  a  dish 
of  pork  with  rice-flour  covering  ;  while  in  the 
small  dishes  may  be  bamboo  sprouts,  pork  ribs, 
chopped  chicken,  and  other  various  kinds  of 
meats  and  vegetables.  Sour  pickles  and  salt 
vegetables  will  be  found  in  the  small  dishes, 
while  peppers  or  peppered  cabbage  and  pre- 
served fruits  will  be  within  reach  of  every  guest. 
Each  one  is  allowed  to  take  from  each  dish — 
after  the  polite  forms  of  helping  have  been  gone 
through  by  the  host — with  his  own  chop-sticks 
such  things  as  suit  his  taste,  and  is  not  compelled, 


EXPENSE    OF    LIVING  199 

as  we  are,  to  sit  down  before  a  well-filled  plate, 
or  have  definite  courses  placed  before  you  of 
which  he  must  partake,  whether  he  have  indiges- 
tion, a  weak  stomach,  a  strong  appetite,  or 
whether  he  is  or  is  not  hungry.  For  such  a 
dinner,  including  Chinese  wines,  served  for  eight 
persons,  the  host  may  be  expected  to  pay  from 
fifteen  to  twelve  dollars,  more  or  less,  according 
to  the  character  of  the  food  and  the  place  it  may 
be  served. 

But  food  is  only  one  part  of  the  expense  of 
living.  Clothing  and  shelter  play  as  important 
a  part  as  food.  The  Chinese  have  reduced  the 
expense  of  clothing  to  a  last  analysis  of  economy 
for  the  north  temperate  zone.  We  of  Europe 
and  America  have  not  learned  the  first  princi- 
ples of  economy  in  the  matter  of  food  and  cloth- 
ing. We  clip  our  wool  from  our  sheep,  spin  it 
into  threads,  and  weave  it  into  stiff  cloth,  in 
which  we  lose  most  of  the  warmth  that  Nature 
intended  it  should  furnish.  The  Chinese  use  the 
skins  of  the  sheep,  lamb,  fox,  dog,  and  indeed  of 
every  kind  of  animal  they  can  take,  and  employ 
them  as  lining  for  their  clothing,  or  without  a 
cloth  covering,  thus  getting  the  use  of  the  skin 
as  well  as  that  of  the  hair,  fur,  or  wool.  They 
use  cotton  as  our  grandams  did  for  their  quilts 
or  comforters,  placing  a  layer  between  two  layers 
of  cotton  or  silk  goods,  cut  into  the  shape  of  a 
garment,  and  then  quilt  it  to  keep  the  cotton 
in  its  place,  and  one  such  a  garment  is  not  only 


200  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

more  economical  and  more  durable,  but  it  is 
warmer  even  than  a  wool  garment  of  the  same 
weight.  It  is  not,  be  it  said,  so  convenient, 
for  the  best  that  can  be  said  of  it  is  that 
it  is  cumbersome  and  not  easily  kept  clean. 
Their  shoes  are  made  of  cloth,  silk,  velvet,  satin, 
or  some  such  material,  while  the  soles  are  made 
of  paper,  or  scraps  of  cloth,  or,  in  the  case  of 
many  kinds  of  women's  shoes,  of  wood.  But 
every  scrap  of  everything  that  the  mind  of 
man  can  conceive  of  is  usable  for  food,  clothes, 
or  fuel. 

Our  stoves  and  furnaces  allow  about  seven- 
tenths  of  the  heat,  more  or  less,  to  go  up  the 
chimney.  The  Chinese  build  half  of  the  floor  a 
foot  and  a  half  above  the  other  half  in  their  bed- 
rooms, as  we  have  said  elsewhere,  and  every 
calory  of  heat  the  fuel  contains  is  transferred  to 
the  bricks,  which  continue  to  radiate  the  heat 
for  hours  thereafter,  if  not  throughout  the  night. 
For  fuel  they  use  worn-out  floor  matting,  weeds, 
grass,  corn-  or  broom-corn  stalks,  coal  balls,  coal, 
or  anything  that  will  burn ;  even  the  droppings 
of  animals  are  all  gathered  up  and  used  as  fuel 
or  fertilizer. 

The  Chinese  have  always  used  a  good  deal  of 
clothing  in  the  winter  time  and  very  little  fuel. 
Their  houses  have  always  had  brick  floors,  paper 
windows,  paper  ceilings,  and  often  paper  par- 
titions, and  are  very  cold  and  uncomfortable. 
But  by  putting  on  more  clothing  in  the  winter 
time,  which  they  wear  both  in  the  house  and 


EXPENSE    OF    LIVING  201 

outside,  they  avoid  colds,  get  plenty  of  fresh  air, 
and  cut  down  their  expenses,  for  their  clothing 
is  made  long,  large  and  roomy,  spreads  out  like 
a  quilt,  and  the  poor  people  use  their  clothing 
as  covering  at  night. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

TRAVEL:    INNS   AND   RESTAURANTS 

I  SHALL  never  forget  my  first  trip  to  Peking. 
It  was  in  1890 — and  it  seems  now,  as  I  look 
back  upon  it  from  the  progress  China  has 
made,  to  have  been  back  in  the  middle  ages.  It 
was  in  a  house-boat.  We  employed  the  boat- 
men on  Saturday,  but  did  not  go  on  the  boats 
till  Monday  morning.  There  were  three  families 
of  us,  each  having  their  own  boat,  but  only  one 
cook  to  prepare  our  meals,  so  that  we  instructed 
the  boatmen  that  they  must  keep  together,  else 
we  would  starve.  Those  who  have  never  visited 
China  until  after  the  advent  of  the  railroad  have 
missed  the  most  interesting,  though  not  the 
safest  or  most  comfortable  methods  of  going 
about. 

The  house-boat  has  two  or  three  compart- 
ments, a  sitting-room,  a  bed-room,  and  a  small 
kitchenette  at  the  rear.  Our  goods  were  all 
stored  away  in  the  hold,  our  trunks,  such  as  we 
needed,  under  the  bed  or  in  the  sitting-room, 
and  all  we  had  to  do  was  sit  and  read,  or  lie  and 
sleep  while  the  wind  wafted  us,  or  the  trackers 
pulled  us,  along  the  most  crooked  and  the  most 

monotonous  river  I  have  ever  seen.     The  water 

202 


TRAVEL:     INNS    AND    RESTAURANTS    203 

is  thick  with  silt  which  it  bears  to  the  sea,  the 
country  is  level  and  sandy,  with  only  stray  trees 
to  break  the  monotony  of  a  straight  horizon, 
and  without  a  forest,  a  meadow,  or  a  flower  in 
the  autumn  to  interest  the  traveller.  One  is 
sometimes  caught  in  a  sand-storm,  as  my  wife 
and  I  were  on  one  occasion,  when  we  had  to  tie 
up  to  the  bank  for  three  days,  shut  up  all  doors 
and  cracks,  and  just  live,  breathe,  and  eat  in  the 
dust.  At  night  we  would  lie  down  on  our  clean 
white  pillows,  and  in  the  morning  our  eyes  would 
be  glued  shut  with  mud  from  the  dust  and  tears 
that  had  mingled  while  we  slept  or  tried  to  sleep, 
and  when  we  arose,  there  was  a  white  spot  where 
our  heads  rested,  the  remainder  of  the  pillow 
being  covered  with  a  layer  of  dust  as  thick  as 
the  old  straw  paper  in  which  grocers  formerly 
wrapped  up  our  packages. 

But  if  the  weather  is  fair,  and  the  wind  in  the 
right  quarter,  the  sail  and  the  trip,  when  com- 
panions are  congenial,  is  restful  and  interesting. 
I  knew  of  one  gentleman,  however,  who  in  de- 
scribing his  trip,  said  it  was  the  most  uninterest- 
ing, monotonous,  and  lonely  trip  he  had  ever 
made — nobody  to  talk  to  but  his  wife  and  his 
daughter  !  I  have  always  found  it  fascinating, 
for  I  had  time  to  read,  rest,  and  think,  as  well 
as  converse,  and  while  I  write  there  comes  up 
before  my  imagination  or  in  my  memory  the  re- 
collection of  three  or  four  of  those  trips  on  the 
Peiho  which  were  worth  all  they  cost. 

But  I  recall  another  interesting  trip  I  made 


204  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

from  Peking  to  Tientsin.  This  was  in  a  mule- 
litter.  The  one  in  the  house-boat  up  the  river 
took  from  Monday  morning  till  Saturday  even- 
ing, while  the  one  in  the  mule-litter  required 
only  four  days.  A  mule-litter  is  a  sort  of  sedan 
chair,  which  may  be  made  into  a  bed,  swung 
upon  the  backs  of  two  mules.  If  the  mules  are 
docile  it  is  not  a  bad  way  to  travel,  though  one 
lacks  the  freedom  of  the  house-boat.  It  was 
March,  and  a  bit  cold  and  raw,  and  we  covered 
ourselves  up  and  slept  a  good  part  of  the  time 
to  a  "  rock-a-by-baby-on-a-mule-back  "  sway  of 
the  litter.  At  noon  we  stopped  at  an  inn  where 
we  had  a  big  bowl  of  Yang  jou  tsuan  wan  tzu, 
which  the  reader  will  find  described  in  the 
chapter  on  food,  and  when  the  mules  had  been 
fed,  watered,  and  properly  rested,  we  started  on 
our  journey. 

Now  a  Chinese  litter-  or  cart-driver  plans  to 
make  the  inn,  where  he  proposes  to  spend  the 
night,  before  dark.  Why  this  is  I  cannot  say, 
unless  it  is  that  robbers  are  much  more  likely 
to  be  on  the  roads  in  the  evening  than  in  the 
morning,  or  because  he  wishes  to  be  at  the  inn 
for  his  supper,  or  because  he  delights  to  sit  down 
and  spend  the  time  after  supper  chatting  and 
smoking  with  his  fellow  travellers.  At  any  rate, 
we  always  made  the  inn  early  in  the  evening,  did 
not  in  any  way  interfere  with  the  plans  of  our 
litter-man,  got  up  when  called,  dressed  hurriedly, 
entered  the  litter  at  about  three  or  four  in  the 
morning,  covered  ourselves  up  as  though  in  bed, 


55 

55 


x 


U 


o 


TRAVEL:     INNS    AND    RESTAURANTS     205 

went  to  sleep,  and  stopped  at  some  other  inn  at 
about  nine  or  ten  for  our  morning  meal.  If  you 
are  going  for  your  own  pleasure,  and  want  to 
have  your  own  way,  take  your  litter-man  with 
you.  But  if  your  design  is  to  get  somewhere, 
go  with  your  litter-man,  eat  native  food,  and  do 
as  the  natives  do — if  you  can. 

Now  I  think  I  ought  to  describe  the  inn. 
Along  the  great  roads  one  will  usually  find  the 
inns  of  brick — a  row  of  one-story  houses  built 
around  an  open  court ;  or  shall  we  say  houses 
on  three  sides  and  a  shed  on  the  fourth.  On  the 
back  of  the  court  are  the  cheng  fang  or  upper 
rooms,  which  are  the  most  honourable  and  the 
most  expensive ;  along  the  one  side  buildings 
which  will  accommodate  any  number  of  guests, 
depending  upon  how  they  are  packed  in  ;  on  the 
other  side  a  shed  for  mules  and  donkeys  ;  and  in 
front  the  main  building,  in  which  the  proprietor, 
servants,  cart-drivers,  litter-men,  and  all  ordi- 
nary travellers  stop,  bunk,  and  eat.  On  one  side 
of  this  room  is  a  large  kang  or  brick  bed  on 
which  the  drivers  pack  themselves,  literally  like 
sardines  in  a  box. 

When  a  foreigner  arrives,  or  a  gentle  Chinese 
guest,  what  shouting  for  hot  water,  food,  rooms, 
waiters — everything — there  is  !  And  the  louder 
they  shout  and  the  more  noise  they  make  the 
better  temper  it  indicates  everyone  to  be  in, 
and  hence  the  warmer  the  welcome.  A  fire  may 
be  built  under  your  brick  bed,  if  you  wish  to 
sleep  upon  a  hot  bed,  or  in  case  you  do  not,  they 


20G  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

will  bring  in  a  brazier  of  burning  charcoal,  or  a 
stove  full  of  red-hot  coal  balls.  If  you  have  your 
own  cook  and  food  with  you,  your  cook  will  pre- 
pare your  food,  getting  hot  water  from  the  inn- 
keeper, but  if  you  have  not  your  cook,  you  are 
at  liberty  to  order  whatever  food  you  wish  from 
the  inn. 

Once  when  coming  from  Tsunhua  across  coun- 
try in  August,  I  had  two  ladies  and  myself  in  the 
party.  We  stopped  at  night  in  a  mud  inn. 
There  was  just  one  decent  room,  and  that  was 
given  to  the  ladies.  They  had  cooked  their 
food  in  the  pot  from  which  the  flues  went  up 
under  this  kang,  and  the  ladies  had  to  put  their 
beds  on  a  hot  kang  for  the  night.  I  fared  better. 
They  put  me  out  in  the  mill  room  in  which  there 
was  nothing,  as  I  supposed,  but  one  donkey  and 
myself,  but  when  we  were  driving  away  about 
daylight  one  of  the  ladies  asked  : 

"  Where  did  you  sleep  ?  " 

"  In  the  mill  room,  there,  with  the  donkey," 
I  answered. 

She  looked  in  and  exclaimed  : 

"  Why  there  are  a  million  mosquitoes  there." 

Being  composed  largely  of  dry  humour,  I  sup- 
pose the  mosquitoes  do  not  like  me.  My  friend 
Gamewell  holds  that  I  have  a  missionary  skin, 
as  neither  mosquitoes,  fleas,  bed — but  there — 
none  of  these  things  move  me. 

I  remember  on  another  occasion  a  party  of  us 
went  for  a  summer  outing  to  Miao  Feng  Shan, 
a  great  temple  on  top  of  a  high  mountain.     We 


TRAVEL:     INNS    AND    RESTAURANTS    207 

were  able  to  secure  but  two  rooms  for  the  entire 
party,  and  so  we  labelled  the  rooms  "  for  men," 
and  "  for  women,"  and  we  packed  ourselves  in 
them  as  the  drivers  do  at  the  inns.  My  only 
pillow  that  evening  was  my  donkey  saddle-bags 
in  which  were  my  rubbers,  but  they  gave  me 
such  comfort,  or  discomfort,  that  I  remember  the 
night  distinctly,  though  it  was  some  twenty  years 
years  ago.  Some  of  the  greatest  hardships  I 
have  ever  suffered  was  when  I  went  off  for  a 
picnic.  How  has  it  been  with  you  ?  But  they 
are  worth  all  they  cost.  They  give  one  a  thrill 
— sometimes  several — which  he  never  forgets. 

A  third  method  of  travel  is  by  the  Chinese  cart. 
A  Chinese  cart  is  a  great  big  Saratoga  trunk  on 
two  wheels.  It  has  no  springs — why  does  it 
have  no  springs  ?  Because  the  non-Christian 
world  has  never  made  a  spring  vehicle.  It  has 
no  seat.  You  sit  down  tailor  fashion  on  the 
bottom  of  the  cart  with  your  feet  doubled  up 
under  you.  Now  the  Chinese  do  not  make  roads 
— occasionally  they  make  a  road — but  ordinarily 
the  carts  make  the  roads.  On  those  dirt  roads 
there  is  usually  a  rut  on  one  side  with  none  on 
the  other ;  the  wheel  drops  into  the  rut,  and  you 
bump  your  head  on  this  side  of  the  cart.  Or  it 
may  be  that  the  rut  is  on  the  other  side,  and  so 
it  is  the  other  side  of  the  head  gets  the  bump  ; 
or  if  the  ruts  alternate,  both  sides  get  bumped. 
Occasionally  a  rut  will  cross  the  road  and  both 
wheels  go  into  it  at  once,  when  you  wish  your 
brain  was  on  a  rubber  cushion.     Or,  finally,  the 


208  HOME     LIFE  IN    CHINA 

mule  starts  suddenly — a  mule  always  does  the 
thing  you  are  not  expecting  him  to  do — that  is 
the  reason  he  is  a  mule,  I  suppose — and  you  bump 
your  head  on  the  back  of  the  cart ;  and  when  you 
get  home  about  the  only  thing  you  can  remember 
of  your  cart  ride  is  the  bumps.  But  oh,  the 
thrills  one  can  get  in  a  single  cart  ride  of  a  hun- 
dred miles. 

A  fourth  method  of  travel  is  by  the  donkey. 
But  few  foreigners  ever  travel  that  way,  except 
when  they  go  on  picnics  or  for  short  distances, 
and  hence  it  need  not  be  considered. 

For  locomotion  in  the  cities  during  recent 
times,  the  jinrikisha  is  one  of  the  most  desirable 
methods  for  the  common  people,  as  it  is  common 
and  economical.  The  jinrikisha  is  a  great  big 
baby-carriage  pulled  by  a  man.  In  this  coun- 
try we  have  a  Pullman  car.  A  man  has  nothing 
to  do  with  the  pulling  of  it.  He  just  hitches  a 
power  of  nature  to  it  and — shh--oft  he  goes. 
The  Chinese  call  a  jinrikisha  a  "  man-pull  cart  " 
— a  man  will  pull  you  anywhere  you  want  to  go 
for  five  cents,  and  lots  of  places  you  do  not 
want  to  go  if  you  can't  talk  Chinese. 

But  in  modern  times — which  means  the  last 
dozen  years — we  have  banished  the  cart  from 
many  of  the  cities  where  foreigners  dwell,  and  we 
go  about  in  carriages,  coupes,  broughams,  auto- 
mobiles, and  trolley  cars,  much  like  we  do  in  an 
American  or  European  city  ;  while  railroads 
connect  many  of  the  great  cities,  and  steamship 
lines  enter  all  the  great  ports,  and  ply  the  great 


TRAVEL:     INNS    AND    RESTAURANTS     209 

rivers,  so  that  it  is  as  easy  and  as  comfortable  to 
go  from  place  to  place  in  China  as  it  is  to  travel 
about  Europe  or  America.  I  went  to  Peking 
from  Tientsin  in  1890  in  a  house-boat.  It  took 
from  Monday  morning  till  Saturday  night,  six 
days'  time,  and  cost  me  three  to  four  times  as 
much  as  when  I  returned  to  Tientsin  in  1907, 
when  I  made  the  trip  in  three  hours  and  a  half, 
in  a  train  as  comfortable  as  any  of  our  palace 
cars. 

Starting  from  New  York,  one  can  travel  around 
the  world  without  ever  leaving  a  steamer,  or  a 
sleeper,  except  to  stop  in  a  good  hotel.  He  will  or 
may  go  to  San  Francisco,  thence  to  Japan,  which 
he  may  cross  by  train,  thence  to  Shanghai,  then 
up  the  Yangtze  River,  thence  by  train  to  Peking 
and  the  Great  Wall,  and  thence  by  the  Siberian 
railroad  to  Moscow  and  St.  Petersburg,  and 
thence  to  Berlin,  Paris,  London,  and  New  York. 
And,  the  miracle  of  modern  times  is  not  the 
floating  palace  nor  the  railroad  train,  but  the 
time-table.  For  a  man  may  leave  New  York  for 
a  trip  around  the  world,  and  before  he  starts, 
leave  an  order  with  his  coachman  or  his  chauffeur 
telling  them  on  what  train  or  vessel  to  meet 
him  when  he  returns,  and  practically  at  what 
hour  and  minute  of  the  day.  If  he  wishes  to  do 
so  he  may  measure  about  half  his  trip  by  land 
and  the  other  half  by  sea.  And  it  might  be  well 
for  him  as  a  tourist  to  remember  that  every  com- 
fortable vessel  on  which  he  rides  or  sails,  and 
every  comfortable  hotel  in  which  he  rests,  has 
14 


210  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

been  built  by  the  man,  who  has  been  developed 
in  the  school,  that  was  established  by  the  church 
(or  the  state  developed  by  the  church),  that  was 
carried  by  the  missionary.  If  my  readers  who 
travel  would  remember  this  fact,  it  might  assist 
them  in  making  more  correct  estimates  of  some 
of  the  great  forces  that  are  contributing  to  the 
development  of  the  governments,  the  science,  the 
business,  and  the  material,  as  well  as  the  moral 
and  religious,  progress  of  the  world. 


CHAPTER  XX11I 

SUMMER   RESORTS 

DOTTING  the  hills  and  valleys  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  every  great  city,  and 
crowning  the  summits  of  every  noted 
mountain  in  the  Flowery  Kingdom,  one  finds 
Buddhist  or  Taoist  temples,  which  are  the  re- 
sorts of  thousands  of  dwellers  in  the  busy  marts 
during  the  hot  summer  months,  or  the  goal  of 
tens  of  thousands  of  pilgrims  in  the  budding  and 
blossoming  days  of  spring.  Groves  of  oak,  chest- 
nut, cedar,  or  other  hardy  trees  cast  a  friendly 
shade  about  the  temple  grounds,  and  over  the 
rippling  streams  and  quiet  ponds  that  come  gur- 
gling down  the  mountain  side,  or  are  held  in  the 
lap  of  the  valley  below.  Not  infrequently  one 
finds  a  sulphur  spring  gushing  from  underneath 
a  great  rock  in  such  abundance  as  to  furnish  a 
healthful  odour  and  a  refreshing  stream  that  the 
priests  direct  in  little  rills  and  waterfalls  through- 
out the  temple  grounds. 

Sometimes  a  great  pagoda  is  built  in  the  vicin- 
ity of  the  temple,  at  the  entrance  of  the  valley, 
that  distant  wayfarers  may  be  guided  in  the  right 
direction.  As  they  draw  near,  the  tinkle  of  little 
bells  blown  by  the  wind,  suspended  from  every 
angle  of  the  pagoda  roof,  relieves  their  weariness 

211 


212  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

as  they  near  their  journey's  end,  and  calls  a  wel- 
come to  them  while  they  rest,  or  sings  them  a 
lullaby  at  nightfall.  Sometimes  a  great  pond, 
filled  with  fan-tailed  gold-fish,  furnishes  them 
entertainment,  while : 

"  The  lantern-grass  floats  on  the  pond  like  a  sail, 
And  the  silver-fish  bites  at  the  gold-fish's  tail," 

for  there  are  no  people  in  the  world  who  enjoy 
their  fish  and  their  birds  more  than  do  the 
Chinese.  Sometimes  a  great  sleeping  Buddha 
not  only  furnishes  an  attraction  to  drowsy  wor- 
shippers, but  gives  a  name  to  the  temple  as  well. 
Sometimes  the  temple  is  built  on  the  summit  of 
some  inaccessible  mountain,  at  the  head  of  some 
long  and  picturesque  valley,  a  whole  day's  jour- 
ney from  the  nearest  settlement,  as  furnishing 
a  challenge  to  the  faith  as  well  as  the  heroism 
of  those  who  would  offer  their  worship.  And  to 
the  temples,  the  people  who  can  afford  it  go  from 
the  narrow  streets  and  crowded  cities  in  the  balmy 
days  of  spring  or  the  hot  months  of  summer. 

I  remember  a  picnic  on  which  I  once  went 
with  a  company  of  congenial  spirits  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1891  or  '2.  The  temple  was  Miao  Feng 
Shan,  a  distance  of  thirty  miles  up  a  romantic 
and  beautiful  valley  into  the  heart  of  the  hills 
or  mountains  from  the  place  where  we  were  stay- 
ing. There  was  a  large  party  of  men  and  women, 
young  men  and  maidens,  boys  and  girls,  and  we 
spent  three  or  four  jolly  days  on  the  way.  We 
were  all  mounted  on  the  backs  of  sure-footed 


SUMMER    RESORTS  213 

donkeys,  and  it  was  not  at  all  difficult  for  each 
one  to  gravitate  toward  some  congenial  com- 
panion of  his  own  or  the  opposite  sex  to  whom 
he  might  make  a  pretension  of  being  an  assis- 
tance in  crossing  the  steep  or  rough  places. 

As  we  passed  along  we  came  upon  patches  of 
begonias  in  full  bloom  which  we  could  gather  up 
by  the  double-handful ;  while  at  other  places  we 
noticed  great  caves  hollowed  out  in  the  cliffs  or 
the  mountain-side,  so  deep  that  I  doubt  if  they 
had  ever  been  fathomed.  Here  were  cool  springs 
gushing  out  from  under  a  thousand  feet  of  rocks, 
near  where  great  boulders  filled  a  half-dry  river 
bed,  much  of  which  was  lost  in  the  sand,  while 
a  small  inn  near  by  furnished  us  hot  water  with 
which  to  make  our  tea.  How  sweet  the 
memories  of  the  cool  shade  of  the  trees,  when 
congenial  couples  wandered  off  to  gather  flowers 
and  wintergreen,  and — or — but  there,  most  of 
us  are  married  since  then,  and  have  our  own  boys 
and  girls  to  go  and  do  likewise — play  the  old 
game  that  our  fathers  and  great-grandfathers 
and  mothers  played  before  us,  and  which  will 
continue  to  be  played  by  our  posterity  as  long 
as  boys  and  girls  continue  to  romp  the  fields  and 
woods,  and  laugh  and  love  and  sing. 

Now  you  can  put  a  good  deal  of  imagination 
into  a  Buddhist  temple  on  a  mountain-top — and 
the  more  imagination  you  put  into  it,  the  more 
attractive  it  becomes,  for  : 

"  Tis  distance  lends  enchantment  to  the  view, 
And  robes  the  mountain  in  its  azure  hue." 


214  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

When  we  arrived  at  the  temple,  most  of  the  best 
rooms  had  been  taken,  I  should  judge,  from 
what  were  left,  and  we  made  ourselves  as  comfort- 
able as  we  could  on  a  brick  bed  or  a  table,  while 
the  cold  night  air  at  this  elevation,  to  which  we 
had  not  been  accustomed,  played  havoc  with 
our  digestive  apparatus  and  the  machinery  of 
the  adjacent  regions. 

In  the  early  morning  all  of  us  arose  and  by 
ones  or  twos  or  more  wandered  up  through  the 
gardens  of  roses  to  the  very  highest  peak,  watch- 
ing the  rosy-fingered,  or  grey,  morn,  while : 

"  Day  ! 

Faster  and  more  fast, 
O'er  night's  brim,  day  boils  at  last. 
Boils,  pure  gold,  o'er  the  cloud-cup's  brim, 
Where  spurting  and  suppressed  it  lay, 
For  not  a  froth-flake  touched  the  rim 
Of  yonder  gap  in  the  solid  grey 
Of  the  eastern  cloud,  an  hour  away  ; 
But  forth  one  wavelet,  then  another,  curled. 
Till  the  whole  sunrise,  not  to  be  suppressed, 
Rose,  reddened,  and  its  seething  breast, 
Flickered   in   bounds,   grew  gold,   then   overflowed 
the  world." 

Most  of  us  sat  breathless  while  we  watched, 
then  dividing  into  groups,  we  returned  to  the 
temple,  each  amusing  themselves  according  to 
their  particular  disposition,  some  loud  and 
hilarious,  some  mild  and  quiet,  some  gathering 
flowers,  until  when  we  arrived  at  breakfast  and 
culled  from  what  we  had  gathered,  we  found  we 
had  forty-seven   varieties  of  flowers  gathered 


SUMMER    RESORTS  215 

between  the  temple  and  the  sunrise  peak,  and  we 
all  agreed  that  China  deserves  the  name  she  has 
given  herself — the  Flowery  Kingdom. 

Perhaps  no  summer  resort  is  more  famous  than 
the  Summer  Palace  of  the  Manchu  imperial 
family  on  the  edge  of  the  foot-hills,  fifteen  miles 
west  of  Peking.  Many  a  time  have  I  passed 
through  it,  floated  upon  the  bosom  of  its  lake, 
crossed  its  camel-backed  or  its  beautiful  seven- 
teen-arched  bridge,  wandered  among  the  beau- 
tiful bowers  of  its  islands,  sat  in  the  shade  of  its 
pavilions,  been  photographed  in  the  glaring  light 
of  a  midsummer  sun  by  the  side  of  its  great 
bronze  cow — and  I  always  fancied  that  the  cow 
looked  better  than  the  man,  but  then  the  man 
only  consented  to  pose  in  order  to  put  a  bit  of 
life  into  the  picture — ate  my  picnic  lunch  on  the 
deck  of  its  great  stone  boat,  or  trudged  up  the 
double  stairway  that  leads  to  the  temple  and  the 
pagoda  on  the  top  of  the  peak,  where  is  a  great 
bronze  Buddha,  with  his  mild,  gilded  eyes  look- 
ing down  into  the  palms  of  his  hands  as  they 
rest  in  the  lap  made  by  his  crossed  legs  and  the 
upturned  soles  of  his  feet. 

In  this  resort  we  have  every  sign  of  royalty 
— beautiful  pai-lohs,  in  front  of  great  pavilions 
with  plate-glass  windows,  and  thrones  of  carved 
teak-wood,  behind  which  great  screens  of  white- 
and  sandal-wood,  on  which  are  etched  the  most 
gorgeous  landscapes,  emit  their  fragrant  odour 
and  their  refining  influence.  In  front  of  some 
of  the  smaller  temples,  as  well  as  in  connection 


216  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

with  Buddhist  shrines  in  the  Forbidden  City,  one 
often  sees  what  we  agreed  to  call,  as  we  passed 
through  the  palace,  "  queer  Chinese  trees." 

"  Queer,  aren't  they  ?  "  said  one  of  the  party 
as  they  noticed  the  tree  in  the  palace.  "  Who's 
queer  ?  "  asked  the  little  man  with  the  short  legs 
and  large  head.  "  The  Chinese."  "  Why  ?  " 
"  Look  at  that  tree." 

The  tree  was  of  special  interest  to  the  little 
man,  as  he  was  collecting  information  about  all 
kinds  of  queer  growths  of  Chinese  trees  and 
flowers. 

"  No,  not  queer,  just  Chinesy,"  he  replied. 

The  tree  is  an  ordinary  evergreen.  It  had 
been  split  up  from  the  roots  about  six  feet  when 
a  small  sapling,  the  roots  having  been  carefully 
divided,  and  thus  planted  in  front  of  the  temple. 
The  two  halves  were  placed  three  feet  apart, 
each  having  the  same  curve  to  the  place  where 
they  joined,  from  which  point  it  grew  in  its 
natural  form.  It  was  placed  directly  in  front 
of  the  door  of  the  temple,  between  the  door  and 
the  gate  of  the  court,  ten  feet  from  the  gate  and 
thirty  feet  from  the  door,  as  though  it  was  de- 
signed that  the  worshipper  would  pass  through 
the  tree  before  entering  the  temple. 

Thus  far  we  have  discovered  only  six  of  these 
trees.  Four  are  in  the  north  end  of  the  Forbid- 
den City,  in  front  of  two  of  the  temples.  One 
of  the  trees  is  before  the  temple  in  the  Winter 
Palace,  where  Count  Von  Waldersee's  troops 
were   stationed,  and   the  sixth  is  in   a  similar 


SUMMER    RESORTS  217 

position  in  the  Summer  Palace.  Whether  this 
particular  kind  of  tree  is  confined  to  imperial 
grounds  we  cannot  say,  but  thus  far  we  have 
seen  none  in  other  localities. 

The  Chinese  are  fond  of  wrapping  or  braiding 
two,  three,  or  four  sprouts  of  a  tree  together,  and 
allowing  them  to  grow  in  that  form.  In  the 
campus  of  the  Peking  University  there  was  a 
species  of  locust,  which  they  call  the  Haai  shu, 
and  which,  by  the  way,  is  the  best  shade  tree  of 
North  China,  the  two  sprouts  of  which  had  been 
wrapped  together  when  small,  and  when  sawed 
down  by  the  Boxers  they  were  each  six  inches 
in  diameter. 

Only  a  short  distance  from  where  the  writer 
is  now  sitting  is  an  apricot  tree  on  which  is  an 
abundance  of  fruit.  It  consists  of  four  sprouts 
which  have  been  neatly  formed  into  a  braid  and 
have  continued  to  grow  until  they  are  each  three 
inches  in  diameter. 

A  favourite  decoration  for  lawns  or  courts  is 
made  from  this  locust.  The  top  of  the  tree  is 
cut  off  and  the  root  of  another  the  same  size 
grafted  thereon.  The  roots  thus  become 
branches,  which  grow  downward  instead  of  up- 
ward, and  are  covered  with  a  dense  foliage. 
This  species  of  shrub  is  very  common  and 
familiar  to  all  landscape  gardeners. 

A  very  interesting  and  attractive  flowering 
shrub  is  called  Kan-chieh-mei.  It  is  a  species 
of  plum,  is  used  as  a  pot  plant,  and  grows  two 
or  three  feet  high.     Every  branch  is  bent  or 


218  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

broken  in  as  many  ways  as  possible  to  bring 
them  all  close  together,  so  that  when  it  blooms 
— which  it  does  before  it  leaves — it  is  a  mass  of 
flowers. 

Perhaps  the  most  attractive  specimen  of 
Chinese  plant  cultivation  is  the  grafting  of  the 
chrysanthemum.  They  have  a  large,  common 
weed  called  hao  tze.  In  the  early  summer  they 
cut  the  branches  off  this  weed  and  in  the  place 
of  each  branch,  as  well  as  on  the  top,  they  graft 
a  chrysanthemum  stalk.  The  root  of  this  weed 
is  much  stronger  than  the  root  of  the  flower,  so 
that  when  they  bloom  the  flowers  are  double  as 
large  as  the  ordinary  chrysanthemum,  and  in 
addition  to  this  extra  luxuriance  of  blossom,  all 
varieties  of  colour  appear  on  the  same  stalk. 
Blooming  as  they  do  in  mid-winter,  they  are 
very  attractive. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  a  people  who  thus 
understand  the  grafting  of  flowers  are  not  igno- 
rant of  any  of  the  processes  of  budding,  grafting, 
or  crossing  fruit ;  as  a  result  we  are  able  to  ob- 
tain very  fine  specimens,  especially  of  the  peach. 

Specimens  of  all  of  these,  either  in  summer  or 
winter,  may  be  fourd  in  the  grounds  of  the 
Summer  Palace,  while  all  except  the  split  trees, 
in  greater  or  less  variety,  may  be  found  in  all 
summer  resorts. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

HOW   THE   POOR   LIVE 

TO  try  to  tell  how  the  poor  live  throughout 
China  would  be  too  large  a  task  for  a 
single  chapter.  But  before  speaking  of 
that  let  me  call  my  reader's  attention  to  this  fact. 

You  hear  of  famines  in  China,  famines  in  India, 
famines  in  Africa,  and  poverty  wherever  the 
gospel  has  not  gone,  but  when  did  you  hear  of  a 
famine  in  Europe  or  America  ?  Why  is  it  that 
in  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century  there 
are  famines  in  almost  all  non-Christian  countries 
and  plenty  in  almost  all  Christian  countries  ? 
You  have  never  heard  of  a  Christian  nation 
going  to  a  non-Christian  nation  to  borrow  a 
million  of  dollars,  but  only  last  year  the  biggest 
non-Christian  nation  the  world  has  ever  deve- 
loped, in  borrowing  $300,000,000,  got  it  all  from 
the  Christian  nations  of  the  world,  and  never 
once  considered  going  to  any  non-Christian 
nation  for  a  single  dollar. 

A  few  years  ago  I  wrote  :  "  The  present  winter 
has  been  a  very  severe  one  in  North  China.  The 
thermometer  has  visited  zero  many  times,  and 
remained  for  a  week  each  visit.  Outside  the 
1  front  gate  '  (ch'ien  men)  several  hundred  persons 

219 


220  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

were  frozen.  A  policeman  at  Tientsin  was  frozen 
at  his  post.  Very  many  of  the  beggars  and  poor 
people  live  in  mat  sheds  along  the  south  side  of 
the  city  wall,  without  fire,  and  with  but  little 
food  and  scant  clothing. 

"  The  sight  of  this  poverty  and  the  wailing  of 
these  beggars  is  very  hard  on  the  nerves,  and 
often  brings  tears  to  one's  eyes.  During  some 
of  the  coldest  days  the  '  Mercy  and  Help  Com- 
mittee '  of  our  Epworth  League,  under  the 
leadership  of  Miss  Davis,  undertook  to  seek  out 
some  of  the  poorest  near  us  for  the  purpose  of 
helping  them.  They  all  became  very  much  ex- 
cited. The  wretchedness  which  they  discovered 
was  appalling.  A  paper  was  at  once  sent  around 
the  mission,  and  letters  to  other  friends,  and  in 
a  short  time  Miss  Davis  had  more  than  sixty 
dollars.  In  two  cases  only  she  gave  money  to 
the  poor  (thirty  cents  to  each  family),  in  one  of 
which  she  found  a  sick  man  who  was  unable  to 
go  to  the  soup  kitchen,  and  in  this  case  it  was 
afterwards  reported,  they  took  the  money, 
bought  wine,  and  made  a  feast. 

"  She  started  a  day  school  so  that  the  children 
could  sit  all  day  in  a  warm  room,  and  then  she 
gave  them  a  bowl  of  millet  to  eat  before  they 
went  home.  Those  who  were  without  clothes 
she  clothed,  and  a  teacher  taught  them  the 
Catechism  and  the  '  Three  Character  Classic' 

"  Most  pitiful  stories  are  told  of  the  poor  people 
forty  miles  south  of  Peking.  Mr  Gamewell  has 
raised  more  than  $200,  and  gathered  from  friends 


fcs 


A    BECK  1AR,  <    \\  I  <  IN 


HOW    THE    POOR    LIVE  221 

all  the  old  clothes  he  could  get,  and  distributed 
among  them.  But  he  could  provide  for  only  a 
few.  Many  of  them,  without  food  and  fire,  and 
with  but  few  clothes,  went  to  sleep  never  to 
awake. 

"  One  of  our  native  preachers  saw  a  poor 
woman  run  to  the  paupers'  kitchen,  where  the 
Government  provides  a  bowl  of  millet,  but 
finding  herself  too  late,  she  sank,  fainting  from 
weakness,  on  the  street.  She  was  taken  home, 
where  he  visited  her  and  gave  her  a  little  money 
to  buy  food. 

"  One  of  Miss  Davis's  little  boys  has  just 
brought  back  the  clothes  she  gave  him,  telling 
her  he  cannot  come  to  school  any  more  because 
he  does  not  like  the  food  she  gives  them.  This 
may  be  the  true  reason,  but  it  is  more  likely 
that  his  parents  do  not  want  him  to  study  the 
Christian  books.  Nevertheless  it  makes  one 
wonder  whether  there  were  not  some  among  the 
5000  who  partook  of  the  '  loaves  and  fishes,' 
who  went  away  saying  that  they  never  did  like 
fish  without  dressing,  anyway." 

It  will  not  be  without  interest  to  some  of  my 
readers  to  know  what  happens  to  these  people 
when  they  enter  upon  a  Christian  life.  About 
the  same  time  that  I  wrote  the  above  about  the 
poverty  in  North  China,  I  also  wrote  the  follow- 
ing incidents  as  to  how  we  took  our  missionary 
collections : 

"  Last  Sunday  we  took  our  missionary  col- 
lection in  Asbury  Chapel.     Dr.  Thomas  and 


222  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

Professor  Pan  recorded  the  names  and  amounts, 
while  Ch'en  Heng-Te  conducted  the  meeting. 
He  called  for  offerings.  Amounts  were  given 
from  five  cents  to  $1.60.  Most  of  the  school- 
boys gave  from  ten  cents  to  $1.  This  they 
must  save  by  going  without  their  dinners. 

"  One  woman  (about  sixty-five  years  old) 
arose  and  said  :  '  I  will  give  one  month.' 
Heng-Te  said  :  '  Put  down  $1.60/  I  asked 
the  boy  beside  me  what  it  meant.  He  an- 
swered :  '  That  old  woman  mends  our  clothes 
and  receives  $1.60  per  month  for  it.'  From 
$19.20  per  year  she  gives  $1.60  for  missions, 
and  never  lets  the  box  pass  her  without  con- 
tributing ;  and  we  have  two  collections  every 
Sunday. 

"A  man  who  was  converted  only  a  few  weeks 
ago  has  begun  selling  books,  without  any  pay 
from  us  (depending  upon  what  he  can  make 
of  profit  on  the  books — paying  us  for  all  the 
books  he  gets),  and  gave  a  good  part  of  his 
savings  in  the  collection.  When  we  remem- 
ber that  most  booksellers  must  be  paid  a  small 
salary  and  given  all  the  books  they  can  sell, 
this  is  no  small  matter.  Think  of  a  man  in 
a  heathen  land  making  a  living  and  giving 
missionary  money  by  buying  and  selling  Chris- 
tian books  !     God's  work  moves  onward." 

And  the  following  : 

"  Dear  Chaplain, — Do  you  want  a  method 
by  which  you  can  raise  five  millions  for  mis- 


HOW    THE    POOR    LIVE  223 

sions  ?  I  can  give  you  the  method  if  you  can 
make  it  work,  and  you  can  if  anyone  can. 
Get  the  two  millions  of  Methodists  in  the 
United  States  to  follow  the  example  set  by 
the  boys  and  girls  and  training  class  of  Peking 
University  yesterday. 

"  We  had  Christmas  service  in  Asbury 
Chapel.  Mr.  Lowry  preached.  We  took  a 
collection  for  the  famine  sufferers.  The  small 
boys  gave  all  their  Christmas  money.  The 
large  boys  gave  all  their  Christmas  money  and 
some  extra.  The  girls  of  the  girl's  school  and 
the  women  of  the  training  class  went  without 
one  meal  every  day  for  a  week,  and  gave  the 
proceeds  and  their  Christmas  money  besides. 
The  amount  of  the  collection  was  $56.  Every 
Sunday  they  do  without  one  meal,  or  save 
money  from  coal  by  doing  without  a  fire  some 
time  during  the  week,  in  order  to  get  money 
for  the  Sunday  collection. 

"These  are  to  be  the  Christians  and  preachers 
of  future  China.  Get  every  Methodist  in  the 
United  States  to  do  that,  or  as  much  as  that 
— and  if  they  read  World-wide  Missions,  they 
will — and  your  treasury  will  be  like  our  col- 
lection bags  were,  full,  heaped  up,  and  running 
over,  and  had  to  be  emptied  before  the  collec- 
tion could  be  finished.  Can  you  make  it 
work  ?  " 

Many  of  these  boys  and  girls  are  supported  by 
Christian  people  from  the  United  States,  but 


224  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

after  they  have  graduated  they  go  into  Christian 
work  on  salaries  ranging  from  one-fifth  to  one- 
tenth  what  they  could  get  in  business  ;  and  if 
they  go  into  business  they  agree  to  help  some 
other  boy  through  college  as  they  have  been 
helped. 

It  has  been  the  custom  in  our  own  college  to 
pay  the  cook  $1.75  (about  seven  shillings)  a 
month  to  board  the  boys.  From  this  he  must 
get  his  own  food  as  well  as  that  of  his  helpers. 
People  have  said  to  me  : 

"It  is  wrong  to  allow  those  poor  people  to 
give  out  of  their  poverty  to  help  others." 

My  only  answer  is  : 

"  Jesus  did  not  forbid  the  widow  giving  her 
mite — nay,  He  commended  her." 

And  this  usually  ends  the  argument. 

I  have  given  these  incidents  not  for  the  pur- 
pose of  stimulating  my  readers  to  an  interest  in 
mission  work — though  I  do  not  object  to  their 
being  interested — but  to  say  that  the  food  fur- 
nished them  by  this  seven  shillings  per  month 
is  very  much  better  than  that  to  which  many  of 
them  have  been  accustomed  at  their  homes,  and 
I  add,  that  in  sixteen  years  of  service  as  a  teacher 
in  the  Peking  University,  I  have  never  known 
of  a  single  complaint  having  come  from  these 
lads  on  account  of  the  quality  or  the  insuffi- 
ciency of  the  food,  though  I  have  known  of  the 
boys  of  wealthy  parents,  who  paid  their  cook 
$3.50  (fourteen  shillings)  a  month,  complaining 
bitterly  that  the  food  was  not  good  enough. 


HOW    THE    POOR   LIVE  225 

Nor  have  I  ever  known  of  our  boys  having  in- 
digestion, or  breaking  down  on  account  of  lack 
of  nourishment. 

The  contractor  who  built  my  house  hired  his 
coolie  labourers  for  five  cents  (twopence  half- 
penny) a  day  and  their  board,  which  will  indi- 
cate that,  if  he  had  a  wife  or  children,  they  would 
have  to  contribute  something  to  the  daily  income 
or  live  on  plainer  foods  than  we  furnished  our 
students.  One  of  the  amusing  things  to  me  was 
this — that  after  we  had  put  them  through  the 
Peking  University  on  thirty  dollars  a  year,  and 
after  graduation  they  were  able  to  enter  our 
American  Universities  for  post-graduate  work 
without  examinations,  the  Chinese  Government 
had  to  pay  $900  a  year  for  their  support  in  these 
same  American  colleges — and  yet  we  went  over 
to  teach  the  Chinese  Political  Economy  ! 


15 


CHAPTER  XXV 

PEASANT   LIFE 

I  WAS  one  day  going  along  the  road  in  North 
China  in  early  summer  or  late  spring,  and  I 
passed  a  woman  who  was  going  to  her  field 
to  cultivate  her  corn.  She  had  a  plough  which 
was  to  be  used  as  a  cultivator — for  the  Chinese 
do  not  have  that  utensil — upon  her  shoulder, 
and  was  leading  a  donkey  which  was  to  be 
hitched  to  the  plough. 

On  another  occasion  when  going  to  the 
hills  I  saw  a  cow,  a  donkey,  and  a  pony  hitched 
to  a  plough,  the  handles  of  which  the  farmer 
held,  and  he  was  sinking  it  as  deeply  into  the 
loam  as  he  could  make  it  go. 

On  still  another  occasion  I  saw  a  woman  and 
a  young  man  pulling  a  plough,  the  single  handle 
of  which  her  husband  was  holding.  He  was 
pushing  with  all  his  might,  and  he  had  no  time 
to  look  back  after  he  had  put  his  hand  to  the 
plough. 

The  Chinese  are  an  agricultural  people,  and  for 
about  four  thousand  years  have  been  practically 
self-supporting  from  the  productions  of  their  own 
soil.  But  it  is  pathetic  the  amount  of  work  they 
have  done  in  order  to  kuo  jih  tzu — "  pass  the 

226 


A   TYPICAL   NATIVE   HUT,   SHOWING    FENCE    MADE    FROM    STALKS   OF 
"KAOLING"  (TALL    WHEAT),  N.  CHINA 


PEASANT    LIFE  227 

days,"  for  that  was  about  all  they  expected  to 
do  under  the  old  regime.  For  instance — in 
planting  their  wheat,  after  the  ground  was  pre- 
pared, a  man  with  a  donkey  "  marked  out  "  the 
row,  another  with  a  gourd  under  his  arm,  filled 
with  seed  wheat,  to  which  was  attached  a  long 
bamboo  tube,  followed,  tapping  on  the  tube  with 
another  stick,  to  drill  the  wheat.  Still  another 
man  followed  with  a  dust-pan  of  fertilizer  which 
he  scattered  over  the  wheat,  and  a  fourth  man 
followed  him  drawing  an  oval  stone,  which 
rolled  along  the  furrow  to  cover  the  wheat.  And 
this  had  to  be  repeated  for  every  row  of  wheat 
that  was  planted. 

Now  about  the  fertilizer.  In  the  great  cities 
all  the  night  soil  is  gathered  and  dried  and  sold 
to  the  farmers.  Those  who  have  teams  also 
come  into  the  cities  and  scoop  up  the  dirt  from 
the  drains.  All  the  winter-time  the  farmers  may 
be  seen  going  along  the  public  highways  and  by- 
ways, gathering  up  the  droppings  of  all  camels, 
donkeys,  mules,  and  ponies,  and  carrying  it  to 
their  village  or  their  home,  and  piling  it  up  where 
it  will  decay  for  the  spring  planting.  Near  each 
village  there  is  a  great  keng  or  hole  scooped  out, 
into  which  the  village  drainage  is  conducted,  and 
this  again  is  cleaned  out  for  the  fertilizer,  and 
finally,  they  may  often  be  seen  skinning  the  sod 
off  the  bank  along  the  roadside,  which  is  carried 
to  the  village  and  piled  up  to  rot  and  thus  make 
loam  to  be  mixed  with  the  stronger  fertilizer. 

They  plant  all  their  grains  in  rows  far  enough 


228  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

apart  so  that  when  the  hoeing  is  finished  they 
may  plant  a  row  of  some  other  kind — it  may  be 
beans  or  melons — between  each  row,  so  that  these 
may  be  well  grown  when  those  are  harvested. 
They  hoe  their  wheat — indeed  they  hoe  every- 
thing. When  the  wheat  is  ripe,  they  harvest  it 
by  pulling  rather  than  by  cutting  it,  carry  it  to 
the  threshing-floor,  where  when  it  is  properly 
dry  they  thresh  it  by  tramping  it  out  with  cattle 
or  donkeys,  winnow  it  by  pitching  it  up  and  let- 
ting the  wind  blow  the  chaff  away,  and  then 
grind  it  in  the  same  way  as  the  Hebrews  did  in 
Old  Testament  times.  Indeed  we  see  very  many 
things  in  China  which  illuminate  the  Bible. 

The  wall  around  Peking  is  25  miles  long,  40 
feet  high,  42  feet  thick  at  the  top,  and  50  feet 
thick  at  the  bottom,  with  shoulders  every  hun- 
dred yards  which  make  it  twice  as  thick.  Such 
a  wall  would  be  difficult  to  blow  down  with  a 
ram's  horn.     It  would  need  a  Joshua. 

At  the  large  gates  the  main  wall  is  straight, 
but  a  horseshoe-shaped  entrance,  having  one, 
two,  or  three  gates,  is  built  around  the  gate.  It 
was  in  such  a  place  that  Eli  sat  waiting  for  the 
return  of  his  sons. 

Over  the  gate  is  a  tower,  50  or  60  feet  above 
the  wall,  in  which  the  large  guns  are  kept.  It 
was  from  such  a  tower  that  David  watched  for 
the  runners,  and  knew  the  running  of  Ahimaaz. 

The  jinrikisha  men  are  able  to  run  for  five 
miles  or  more  and  pull  a  man  in  their  "  baby 
carriage  "  without  perceptible  weariness  ;   from 


PEASANT   LIFE  229 

them  we  can  understand  how  Ahimaaz  could 
run  as  he  did. 

There  is  a  gate  in  Tientsin  through  which  all 
the  water  is  carried  into  the  city.  It  was  in  such 
a  street  and  before  such  a  gate  that  the  people 
gathered  together  to  listen  to  Ezra  read  the 
Book  of  the  Law. 

The  streets  are  full  of  dogs  which  never  had 
owners.  They  live  on  refuse  that  is  thrown  into 
the  street.  Dogs  fight  over  a  bone  in  America. 
Here  they  fight  over  a  cabbage-leaf.  "  Without 
were  dogs." 

The  swine  live  in  the  same  manner  as  the  dogs 
— by  the  refuse  that  is  thrown  upon  the  street. 
One  can  easily  understand  why  the  Jews,  whose 
pigs  were  mere  scavenger  carts,  as  the  Chinese 
pigs  are,  should  forbid  the  eating  of  the  flesh  of 
swine.  I  think  that,  if  it  were  a  direct  biblical 
command  to  eat  it,  most  of  us  would  break  the 
commandment. 

A  traveller  spreads  his  bed  down  at  night  on 
a  warm  kang,  covers  himself,  and  goes  to  sleep. 
In  the  morning  he  rolls  his  bed  up  into  a  bundle 
about  the  size  of  an  ordinary  quilt  and  starts 
upon  his  way  ;  he  takes  up  his  bed  and  walks, 
or,  as  is  very  often  the  case,  puts  it  on  his 
donkey  and  rides  on  it. 

A  few  days  ago,  as  I  came  from  the  "  Western 
Hills,"  I  saw  a  woman  playing  the  part  of  a 
donkey,  "  grinding  at  the  mill."  In  biblical 
pictures  two  are  represented  as  grinding  at  the 
mill,  but  this  woman  was  alone. 


230  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

Near  the  mill  at  which  the  woman  was  grind- 
ing there  was  a  flat,  hard  piece  of  ground,  about 
the  size  and  shape  of  a  tennis-court,  which 
was  the  threshing-floor — a  very  good  represen- 
tation, no  doubt,  of  Nachon's  or  Atad's  or 
Oman's. 

But  still  another  thing  was  noticeable  here. 
As  I  watched  her  and  her  threshing-floor,  I  was 
riding  on  a  donkey  like  the  thirty  sons  of  Jair 
the  Gileadite  who  rode  on  thirty  ass's  colts — like 
Christ  entering  Jerusalem. 

Still  further,  I  was  not  going  along  the  large 
road,  but  along  one  of  the  many  by-paths  that 
go  diagonally  through  all  the  grain-fields.  These 
by-paths  through  the  field  help  us  to  understand 
how  "  some  seed  fell  by  the  way-side." 

From  our  street  to  the  gate  at  which  we  enter 
and  leave  the  city,  I  counted  500  camels  on  their 
way  to  or  from  the  mines,  loaded  or  going  for 
coal.  They  go  in  strings  of  six.  A  man  leads 
or  rides  the  front  one,  guiding  it  not  by  a  bridle, 
but  by  a  rope  tied  to  a  stick  which  is  thrust 
through  its  nose.  The  other  five  are  tied,  each 
to  the  one  in  front  of  it,  by  ropes  similarly  at- 
tached. Many  of  these  that  I  counted  were  only 
the  tail  end  of  long  strings  that  were  going  off 
on  side  streets.  Like  the  Midianites,  "  their 
camels  were  without  number." 

Many  of  these  camels  and  mules  and  donkeys 
have  a  rope  muzzle  fastened  over  their  mouths 
and  noses  to  prevent  their  cropping  the  herbage, 
if  there  be  any,  as  they  pass  along  the  road  ; 


PEASANT    LIFE  231 

they  are  thus  muzzled  "  when  treading  out  the 
corn." 

At  one  place  men  were  drawing  water  out 
of  a  large  well,  and  carrying  it  or  letting  it  run 
through  drains  to  irrigate  their  fields,  while  large 
troughs  were  being  continually  filled  by  the  men 
and  emptied  by  the  passing  camels  and  donkeys. 
One  can  never  appreciate  the  use  of  Jacob's  well 
till  he  has  seen  and  drunk  from  a  great  well  in  a 
dry  climate  like  this. 

In  a  melon  patch  was  a  platform  raised  four 
or  five  feet  above  the  ground  and  covered  with 
matting,  making  a  little  place  in  which  a  man 
could  rest  and  sleep.  They  look  very  much,  no 
doubt,  like  Isaiah's  "  cottage  in  a  vineyard,  as 
a  lodge  in  a  garden  of  cucumbers." 

As  we  were  about  to  enter  the  great  gate  we 
saw  men  with  little  tables  loaded  with  cash 
(Chinese  money).  Country  cash  is  small,  city 
cash  large.  When  one  comes  from  the  country 
to  the  city,  like  the  people  to  the  feast  at  Jerusa- 
lem, he  must  change  his  country  cash  for  city 
cash.  If  he  knows  how  much  his  cash  is  worth 
in  city  cash,  all  is  well ;  but  if  not,  he  is  liable 
to  fall  into  "  a  den  of  thieves,"  for  these  money- 
changers are  not  wholly  unlike  those  whom 
Christ  cast  out  of  the  temple. 

Much  of  the  grain  is  carried  to  the  threshing- 
floor  on  the  backs  or  shoulders  of  men  rather 
than  hauled  on  waggons  or  carts  or  carried  by 
animals.  When  the  grain  is  winnowed  and  put 
away  it  is  the  business  of  the  women  to  gather 


232  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

up  the  chaff,  and  pile  up  the  straw  that  it  may 
be  used  as  feed,  fertilizer,  or  fuel. 

This,  by  the  way,  is  another  problem  in  North 
China — the  problem  of  securing  fuel  for  the  long 
cold  winters.  And  so  they  raise  large  quantities 
of  corn  and  broom-corn  {Kao-liang,  tall  millet), 
or  Kaffir-corn,  the  seeds  of  which  may  furnish 
food  for  men  or  animals,  and  the  stalks  be  used 
for  fences  about  their  houses,  or  fuel  for  heating 
their  brick  beds.  Indeed,  among  the  peasant 
class,  their  beds,  like  their  houses,  are  made 
mostly  of  clay  or  sun-dried  bricks. 

When  their  grains  are  harvested  they  must  be 
stored,  but  very  few  of  the  peasant  class  have 
storehouses  of  any  kind.  During  the  autumn 
days  one  of  the  most  common  sights  as  one 
passes  through  the  rural  districts  is  to  see  the 
roofs  of  their  clay  cottages  covered  with  maize 
that  it  may  be  sufficiently  dried  to  keep  it  from 
moulding.  Of  this,  only  enough  is  ground  at  a 
time  to  last  the  family  for  a  day  or  a  few  days 
at  most. 

Great  quantities  of  beans  are  raised,  which  are 
ground  up  and  made  into  a  kind  of  bean-butter 
(chiang),  either  red  or  black,  while  others  are 
ground  up  and  made  into  bean-curd — a  kind  of 
food  which  is  not  very  appetizing  to  the  Euro- 
pean when  he  first  arrives  in  China.  I  remem- 
ber one  young  friend  who  said  that  when  he 
came  to  China  there  was  one  thing  he  decided 
he  would  never  eat. 

"  What  was  that  ?  "  I  asked. 


PEASANT    LIFE  233 

"  Bean-curd,"  he  answered. 

"  And  have  you  come  to  it  ?  "  I  inquired. 

"  I  was  once  shut  up  in  Mongolia,"  he  ex- 
plained, "  during  the  troublous  times  of  the 
Chino- Japanese  war,  and  for  three  days  I  could 
get  nothing  to  eat.  I  finally  came  upon  a  man 
who  was  selling  bean-curd,  and  I  give  you  my 
word  of  honour,  I  never,  either  before  or  since, 
tasted  anything  so  good." 

Among  the  various  kinds  of  Chinese  produc- 
tions none  are  perhaps  more  palatable  than  their 
melons.  They  have  a  large  variety  of  musk 
melons  ;  and  water-melons  with  both  red  and 
yellow  insides.  I  confess  I  preferred  those  with 
red  pulp,  though  that  was,  I  am  inclined  to 
think,  because  they  were  more  like  our  own. 

Chinese  farming  utensils,  as  well  as  those  of 
all  kinds  of  tradesmen,  are  very  crude — much  like 
those  of  Europe  before  the  age  of  invention  and 
machinery.  They  plough  with  a  forked  stick, 
one  part  of  which  is  tipped  with  iron  ;  their  drag 
or  harrow  is  often  nothing  more  than  a  bunch  of 
brush  ;  and  their  hoes  and  mattocks  are  all  made 
by  the  blacksmith,  though  I  think  their  hoe  is  set 
at  a  better  angle  than  those  in  America.  Their 
axes  are  hand-made,  and  are  often  designed  for 
a  left-  as  well  as  a  right-handed  workman.  Their 
saw  is  nothing  but  an  ordinary  bucksaw  beaten 
out  of  a  piece  of  steel,  and  they  are  very  inge- 
nious in  using  all  kinds  of  things,  such  as  bits  of 
wire,  old  corset  steels,  or  hoop-skirts,  which  they 
utilize  in  making  saws.     Their  chisels  and  planes 


234  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

— they  are  without  augers — are  of  the  same 
crude  pattern,  but  their  drill  is  both  ingenious 
and  effective.  Their  carts  are  crude,  heavy,  and 
cumbersome,  but  their  wheel-barrow  has  a  mini- 
mum of  friction  with  a  maximum  of  strength, 
and  with  three  men  and  a  donkey  or  two  they 
can  transport  tremendous  loads  for  long  dis- 
tances at  a  slight  cost. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

ODDITIES  OF  EVERY-DAY   LIFE 

IN  all  the  walks  of  life  the  Chinese  are  widely 
different  from,  often  exactly  antithetical  to 
us .  The  divergence  of  customs ,  professional , 
social,  mental,  and  moral,  are  only  surface  indi- 
cations of  essential  disparities  of  type,  or  shall 
we  say  of  centuries  of  experience  and  education. 
We  in  our  blunt  way  often  blurt  out  informa- 
tion or  scraps  of  intelligence  which  the  average 
Chinese  would  never  think  of  revealing.  Ages 
of  experience  have  taught  him  that  things  un- 
said never  need  to  be  answered  or  accounted  for, 
while  one  may  at  any  time  be  called  to  face  facts 
that  he  never  received  a  cash  for  telling,  and 
what  is  the  use  of  paying  for  hearing  yourself 
talk  when  one  ought  to  be  paid  for  doing  so. 

To  attempt  to  get  a  Chinese  to  assign  a  reason 
for  anything,  even  the  most  common  custom,  is 
often  futile.  One  day  while  riding  a  donkey 
through  the  country,  I  noticed  that  many  of 
the  farmers'  wives  and  daughters  living  in  the 
country  villages  did  not  bind  their  feet.  I 
said  to  the  donkey  driver  who  was  running  along 
beside  me  :  "  The  country  women  do  not  bind 
their  feet,  do  they  ?  " 

235 


236  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

"  No." 

"  Why  ?  " 

"  They  do  not  bind  their  feet." 

"  Why  is  it  that  the  Chinese  women  bind  their 
feet  ?  " 

"  They  bind  their  feet." 

"  But  why  do  they  do  it  ?  " 

"  That  is  their  custom." 

"  But  why  is  it  their  custom  ?  " 

"  There  is  no  why — no  reason  whatever." 

I  once  said  to  one  of  the  boys  when  he  came 
to  school :  "  Why  did  your  brother  not  come 
to  school  to-day  ?  " 

"  My  brother  did  not  come  to  school  to-day," 
he  answered. 

"  Why  do  the  Chinese  build  a  pagoda  thirteen 
stories  high  ?  "  I  once  inquired  of  a  countryman 
in  the  region  of  a  temple  where  a  great  pagoda 
was  the  centre  of  attraction. 

"  That  is  the  way  to  build  a  pagoda,"  he  an- 
swered. 

The  Chinese  are  always  very  social,  but  at  the 
same  time  conservative  and  non-committal. 
When  two  Chinese  meet  on  the  street,  neither 
would  think  of  passing  the  other  without  stopping 
and  having  a  little  social  chat.  It  is  only  social, 
however,  for  neither  tells  the  other  anything 
about  himself  or  his  business.  The  conversa- 
tion will  probably  be  something  after  the  fol- 
lowing : 

"  Are  you  well  ?  " 

"  Well.     Are  you  well  ?  " 


ODDITIES    OF   EVERY-DAY    LIFE      287 

"  Well.     Where  are  you  going  ?  " 
"  Down  street.     Where  are  you  going  ?  " 
"  Up  street.     Where  have  you  been  ?  " 
'  Just  up  there.     Where  have  you  been  ?  ' 
"  I  have  been  down  there.     Good-day." 
"  Good-day." 

In  introducing  people  in  China,  the  surname 
is  always  given  first,  as  indeed  in  all  their  no- 
menclature. Although  this  is  contrary  to  our 
Western  custom,  it  is  nevertheless  more  reason- 
able. We  say  John  Smith — they  would  say 
Smith  John.  It  is  the  Smith  that  is  really 
essential,  and  so  they  give  it  first  place  in  their 
name,  while  the  given  name  is  of  secondary  im- 
portance. 

When  one  Chinese  meets  another  on  the  street 
they  stop  at  a  respectful  distance  from  each 
other,  and  each  makes  a  profound  bow  and  re- 
spectfully shakes  his  own  hands.  One  of  the 
most  awkward  things  I  have  ever  known  a 
Chinese  to  undertake  is  to  shake  hands  with  a 
European  before  he  has  learned  to  do  so.  He 
clutches,  grabs,  or  searches  for  one's  hand  in  a 
most  pathetic  way.  If  you  were  to  try  to  shake 
the  hand  of  a  Chinese  who  knew  nothing  of 
Western  customs  he  would  be  pardonable  for 
regarding  it  as  a  case  of  assault  and  battery, 
while  to  lift  one's  hat  to  an  acquaintance — man 
or  woman — would  be  an  insult. 

White  is  the  colour  used  by  the  Chinese  in 
mourning  costume,  instead  of  black.  It  does 
not  remain  white  long,  however,  and  the  more 


288  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

soiled  and  dilapidated  a  mourner  looks  the  more 
mournful  he  appears.  For  this  reason,  under 
the  old  regime,  the  afflicted  ones  left  their  heads 
unshaven  until  they  attained  a  remarkable  de- 
gree of  disreputability.  No  unkempt,  unshaven, 
untrimmed  Westerner  could  appear  as  forlorn  as 
a  Chinese  mourner  looks. 

A  few  decades  ago  smallpox  was  almost  uni- 
versal. No  precautions  were  taken  against  its 
spread.  Once  on  inquiring  of  a  Chinese  how 
many  children  he  had,  he  named  them  all  except 
the  youngest. 

"  But  why  not  count  him  ?  "  we  inquired. 

"  He  has  not  had  the  smallpox  yet,"  he  an- 
swered. 

Everyone  was  expected  to  have  it,  and  when 
a  child  was  taken  ill  it  was  carefully  tended  until 
it  had  ch'u  hua'rh — "  blossomed  out,"  as  the 
Chinese  term  it — when  it  was  allowed  to  go  out 
on  the  street  and  play  with  the  other  children. 
I  have  seen  small  girls,  having  babies  covered 
with  scabs  upon  their  backs,  going  freely  about 
the  streets  of  Oriental  cities. 

On  all  sides  one  comes  upon  blind  people. 
This  affliction  is  mainly  the  result  of  smallpox, 
and  is  so  common  as  hardly  to  be  considered  an 
affliction.  No  provision  is  made  for  the  blind  in 
the  way  of  homes  or  hospitals,  and  they  may  be 
seen  going  about  the  streets,  feeling  their  way 
with  a  bamboo  stick,  blowing  a  peculiar  whistle 
to  let  the  neighbourhood  know  that  the  blind 
musician,  or  fortune-teller,  or  story-teller,  is  in 


ODDITIES    OF   EVERY-DAY   LIFE       239 

their  midst,  and  is  ready  to  entertain  the  women 
and  children  for  an  hour  for  a  handful  of  cash. 

Baldness  is  fully  as  common  in  China  as  in  the 
West.  The  Chinese  call  it  kuang  t'ou,  or  "  Shiny 
pate."  Women  suffer  as  much  from  it  as  men. 
This  is  partly  the  result  of  the  hairdressing  used, 
and  partly  caused  by  the  fashion  of  combing  the 
hair  so  tight  back  over  a  framework  as  to  slowly 
drag  it  out  by  the  roots.  When  the  scalp  be- 
comes bare,  she  pastes  a  large  black  patch  on 
the  head,  and  continues  to  comb  the  hair  about 
the  forehead  and  neck  up  into  a  bunch  and  pin 
it  to  the  patch.  Then  when  it  is  almost  all  gone, 
she  paints  her  head  with  Chinese  ink  to  make  it 
look  like  well-combed  hair. 

Deafness  and  dumbness  are  less  common  than 
baldness  and  blindness,  perhaps  because  there  is 
neither  disease  nor  style  to  produce  them.  The 
Chinese  teach  the  children  that  if  they  eat  any 
of  the  wax  from  the  ear  they  will  become  speech- 
less, while  it  is  currently  believed,  in  some  parts 
of  China  at  least,  that  a  blow  on  the  soft  spot  of 
an  infant's  skull  will  cause  it  to  be  dumb. 

I  have  often  been  asked  if  the  Chinese  have 
the  toothache.  They  have  everything.  Now 
that  the  foreigner  is  in  China,  the  possessor  of  a 
decayed  molar,  if  he  has  a  foreign  acquaintance, 
appeals  to  him  to  pull  his  tooth.  If  he  hasn't, 
"  he  must  grin  and  bear  it,"  or,  as  someone 
puts  it,  "he  don't  need  to  grin."  There  are  no 
Chinese  dentists,  and  I  think  it  would  be  difficult 
to  find  a  race  with  poorer  teeth. 


240  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

Headache  is  very  prevalent,  but  for  this  they 
have  a  remedy,  or  what  they  allege  to  be  one. 
They  pinch  the  skin  of  the  temples,  the  forehead, 
or  the  bridge  of  the  nose,  until  it  is  discoloured, 
in  the  hope  that  by  counter-irritation  on  the  out- 
side they  may  dispel  the  pain  within.  Still  an- 
other remedy  is  to  place  a  large  black  plaster,  a 
leaf, or  the  skin  of  a  radish  or  turnip  over  the  spot. 
For  sore  throat  they  pinch  the  neck  the  same  as 
for  headache.  Whether  it  cures  or  not,  I  cannot 
say;  nor  do  I  know  whether  their  treatment 
for  skin  diseases  or  wounds  is  efficacious.  The 
almost  universal  remedy  is  a  plaster  called  hao 
kao,  which  keeps  all  the  pus  and  poison  within. 
But  when  one  has  said  all  one  has  to  say  about 
Chinese  medicine,  whether  good  or  bad,  kill  or 
cure,  one  must  still  admit  that  they  have  enough 
people  left  in  spite  of  it  all. 

A  translation  of  the  patent  medicine  adver- 
tizements  in  the  shape  of  yellow  posters  pasted 
upon  the  walls  of  all  the  principal  streets,  and 
at  every  market-place,  would  make  an  interest- 
ing bit  of  literature,  but  it  would  hardly  be 
accepted  by  any  respectable  publishers,  nor  be 
allowed  to  be  sent  through  the  mails.  There 
are  many  of  them,  however,  that  are  unique. 
One  large  poster  that  caught  the  eye  on  every 
side  was  :  "  Foreign  methods  of  repairing  the 
teeth  "  (Yang  Fa  Pu  Ya  Yen).  Another  was  a 
poster  advertizing  "  Bicycle  Pills."  Another 
advertized  a  pill  that  was  guaranteed  to  produce 
male   offspring.     Many  posters   advertize   the 


* 

X 

fr 


A   GIRL   WITH    A    !',lkl) 


ODDITIES    OF   EVERY-DAY    LIFE      241 

cures  that  may  be  expected  by  taking  pilgrim- 
ages to  certain  temples,  and  drinking  water 
from  the  spring  connected  therewith  ;  but  the 
most  common  of  all  the  temple  posters  is,  "  Ask 
and  ye  shall  receive."  Indeed  one  often  sees 
scores  of  assurances  hung  up  about  the  temple 
by  those  who  have  prayed,  that  their  prayers 
have  been  answered  as  a  result  of  the  worship 
of  the  god  of  that  temple,  which  in  some  cases 
is  a  fox. 

Many  trades  which  with  us  are  stationary  are 
peripatetic  in  China.  The  country  blacksmith 
packs  his  shop  on  a  wheel-barrow  and  moves 
about  from  place  to  place,  and  from  village  to 
village.  Two  boxes — which  look  very  much  like 
cheese-boxes — contain  the  outfit  of  the  shoe- 
maker, and  with  these  swung  on  the  two  ends 
of  a  pole,  he  goes  from  place  to  place,  and  mends 
shoes  upon  the  side  walk.  The  chiropodist  finds 
a  warm  corner  on  the  south  side  of  some  friendly 
walls,  and  removes  the  corns,  or  trims  the  in- 
growing nails  with  which  everyone  is  afflicted, 
for  in  spite  of  their  silk,  satin,  or  velvet  shoes 
the  Chinese  suffer  severely,  and  would  welcome 
a  genuine  "  foot-ease."  Most  of  the  people  are 
shaven  by  peripatetic  barbers,  who  wander 
about  the  streets  advertizing  themselves  with 
large  twanging  tweezers  which  sound  like  huge 
tuning-forks,  and  they  offer  to  shave  their 
patrons  upon  the  street,  or  in  their  own  homes. 
They  are  great  gossips — the  barbers. 

Our  travelling  restaurants  have  been  antici- 
16 


242  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

pated  many  centuries  by  the  Chinese  purveyor 
of  food,  who  carries  his  table  on  one  end  of  a 
pole  balanced  by  his  stove  and  cooking  utensils 
on  the  other.  With  his  dough,  his  hashed  meat 
and  vegetables,  and  a  little  oil  and  salt,  he 
roasts,  fries,  bakes,  broils  or  toasts  a  surprising 
number  of  dishes,  the  tastes  of  which  would  be 
still  more  surprising  to  an  Occidental,  though  be 
it  said  to  his  credit  that  the  children  love  his 
wares. 

Even  the  confectioner  is  often  a  wanderer. 
He  carries  a  bowl  or  jar  of  mixed  taffy,  and  a 
number  of  straws  in  a  box.  When  the  children 
give  their  order  he  winds  up  a  bit  of  the  liquid 
taffy  on  the  end  of  a  straw,  and,  after  the  style 
of  a  glass-blower,  he  blows  it  into  the  shape  of 
any  fowl  or  animal  the  little  customer  may 
desire. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

CHINESE   NAMES  AND   NICKNAMES 

SOMEONE  has  said  that  if  you  wish  to  put 
a  man  or  an  audience  to  sleep,  or  destroy 
all  his  interest  in  what  you  have  to  say, 
just  rehearse  to  him  a  few  Chinese  names  with 
which  he  is  not  at  all  familiar.  A  story  is  told 
of  an  English  lady  in  Canton  who  employed  a 
Chinese  cook  who,  when  asked  his  name,  replied  : 

"  My  name  Wang  Chi-tung." 

"  Oh,  I  can't  remember  that,"  exclaimed  his 
mistress.     "  I'll  call  you  John." 

"  What  b'long  Missy  name  ?  "  inquired  her 
factotum. 

"  My  name  is  Mrs.  William  Fames  worth 
Holcomb,"  she  replied. 

"Oh,  me  no  memlee  that ;  me  callee  you 
Tommy." 

To  those  who  think  the  Chinese  names  are 
difficult  to  remember,  we  would  bid  them  look 
first  upon  that  of  Wang  the  cook,  and  then  upon 
that  of  his  mistress. 

Whether  Chinese  names  are  interesting  or  not, 
depends  a  good  deal  upon  one's  understanding 
of  them,  and  much  more  upon  whom  they  repre- 
sent.   The  name  Li  Hung-chang  is  no  better 

243 


244  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

sounding  than  any  other  Chinese  name,  and  yet 
it  attracted  the  attention  of  the  world  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  and  is  full  of  meaning. 
Li  is  the  family  name ;  it  means  plum,  and  is 
said  to  indicate  its  owner's  descent  from  the 
founder  of  Taoism.  This  old  man,  born  nearly 
six  hundred  years  B.C.,  was  said  to  have  had  his 
birth  in  the  shade  of  a  plum  tree,  which  is  called 
Li,  and  so  he  was  called  Mr.  Plum.  The  given 
name  of  a  Chinese  boy  is  supposed  to  indicate 
his  disposition,  his  character,  his  prospects,  or 
the  desires  of  his  parents  for  his  future.  And  so 
the  given  name  of  the  great  Chinese  diplomat, 
who  with  Gladstone  and  Bismarck  made  the 
triumvirate  of  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  was  Hung-chang,  and  may  mean  "  illus- 
trious bird,"  or  "  learned  treatise."  His  brother, 
Han-chang,  who  was  also  a  viceroy,  was  known 
as  "  Bottomless  bag,"  perhaps  in  reference  to 
the  depth  of  his  diplomacy. 

It  may  not  be  uninteresting  to  notice  the 
meaning  of  the  names  of  some  of  the  men  who 
have  played  a  prominent  part  in  the  reforms  of 
the  past  quarter  of  a  century.  Next  to  Li 
Hung-chang,  the  most  "  illustrious  bird "  of 
the  lot,  is  the  great  viceroy,  Chang  Chih-tung, 
the  famous  author  of  the  book,  China's  Only 
Hope.  His  family  name  Chang  means  "  to 
open  out,"  while  Chih-tung  signifies  "  him  a 
cave,"  the  whole  name  apparently  meaning 
"  one  who  opens  himself  up  as  a  cave  "  is  opened. 
Another  great  viceroy  who  was  appointed  with 


CHINESE   NAMES    AND    NICKNAMES     245 

Chang  Chih-tung  and  Li  Hung-chang  as  Peace 
Commissioner,  is  Liu  K'un-yi,  and  his  name  and 
surname,  taken  together,  indicate  that  he  will 
"  put  the  earth  in  order/'  And  it  may  be  said 
that  among  the  great  patriots  during  the  coup 
d'etat,  none  were  more  reliable  than  Liu  K'un-yi. 

The  Provisional  President  of  the  Chinese  Re- 
public, the  man  who  first  made  himself  famous 
with  Europeans,  by  giving  them  his  protection 
during  the  Boxer  rebellion,  is  Yuan  Shih-kai, 
whose  name  indicates  that  he  is  the  "  first  "  of 
a  "  generation  of  victors,"  and  it  would  be  safe 
to  allow  the  world  to  decide  whether  he  has 
made  it  good  or  not. 

Prince  Ch'ing's  name  is  Yi  Kang,and  proclaims 
him  an  "  assistant  generation,"  whatever  that 
may  mean.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Prince  of 
Ch'ing's  character  was  as  indefinite  as  his  name. 
He  was  one  of  those  nondescripts  who  never 
make  any  serious  errors,  and  yet  never  take  a 
stand  which  indicates  a  strong  character. 

The  first  President  of  the  Peking  Imperial 
University,  who  was,  by  the  way;  one  of  China's 
great  liberal  leaders,  was  Sun  Chia-nai.  His 
family  name  Sun  means  "  grandson,"  and  his 
given  name  a  "  house- vase  " — "  grandson  of  a 
house  vase,"  a  name  which  in  the  West  might  be 
open  to  the  suspicion  of  ridicule.  The  man  who 
so  long  held  the  position  of  Taotai  at  Shanghai, 
who  was  in  charge  of  the  railroads  and  telegraph 
communications  for  so  many  years,  was  Sheng 
Hsuan-huai.     His  name  Sheng  means  "  abun- 


246  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

dant,"  and  his  given  name,  Hsuan-huai,  means  to 
"  reveal  thoughts."  If  he  had  revealed  all  the 
abundant  thoughts  that  passed  over  his  wires 
during  the  Boxer  outbreak  he  would  have  been 
in  danger  of  having  his  own  thinking  apparatus 
removed  with  the  sword. 

Jung  Lu,  the  lifelong  friend  of  the  Great 
Dowager,  the  man  who  really  defended  the  Lega- 
tions during  the  Boxer  rebellion,  and  then  was 
objected  to  on  the  Peace  Commission,  and  given 
the  cold  shoulder  by  the  very  Ministers  whose 
lives  he  had  saved,  had  a  name  which  meant 
'  glorious  salary,"  or  "  happiness,"  which  is  re- 
garded by  many  in  China  as  a  fair  equivalent. 
The  man  who  was  appointed  Viceroy  at  Tientsin 
when  Li  Hung-chang  was  removed,  was  Wang 
Wen-shao.  His  name  Wang  is  the  same  as  our 
name  King,  while  Wen-shao  means  "  classical 
music."  He  was  not,  however,  known  as  a  com- 
poser, though  like  some  of  the  great  composers 
he  was  as  deaf  as  a  post.  General  Nieh  Shih- 
ch'eng,  who  was  in  command  of  the  troops  that 
attacked  and  killed  500  of  the  Boxers  between 
Tientsin  and  Peking,  who  was  then  rebuked  by 
the  Empress  Dowager  in  an  edict,  and  who 
afterwards  lost  his  life,  had  a  surname  which 
means  "  hard  "  and  a  given  name  which  means 
"  successful  student."  In  this  case  the  name 
was  a  fit,  as  the  road  to  military  glory  in  China 
is  through  hard  and  successful  study.  General 
Ma  Yu-k'un's  family  name  means  "  horse  "  and 
his  given  name  a  "  jade  mountain."      Anyone 


CHINESE  NAMES    AND    NICKNAMES     247 

who  can  make  anything  out  of  these  combina- 
tions is  welcome  to  the  result.  Most  of  these 
were  among  China's  great  men,  and  several  of 
them  were  those  with  whom  I  have  had  more  or 
less  intimate  acquaintance. 

The  Chinese  Minister  at  Washington,  for  so 
many  years  the  most  popular  diplomat  at  the 
American  capital — the  man  who  triumphantly 
rode  the  billows  when  almost  anyone  else 
would  have  gone  under — was  Wu  Ting-fang,  a 
name  which  signifies  "  fragrant  palace."  The 
name  of  the  Minister  to  England  at  the  same 
time  was  Lo  Feng-lo,  and  means  a  "  rich 
harvest,"  while  the  name  of  the  contemporary 
Minister  to  France,  Yu  Keng,  signifies  "  much 
gold,"  a  very  appropriate  name  for  any  Chinese 
who  obtained  official  position  under  the  old 
regime. 

Now  let  us  turn  to  the  names  of  some  of 
the  anti-foreign  Conservatives  who  made 
themselves  so  obnoxious  during  the  Boxer 
rebellion.  Prince  Tuan's  name  was  Ts'ai-yi, 
and  means  a  "  clear  year."  No  name  ever 
given  to  a  man  was  more  incongruous.  He 
was  largely  instrumental  in  making  his  first 
year  in  public  life  one  of  the  darkest  in  the 
whole  history  of  his  country.  The  name  of 
Tung  Fu-hsiang,  the  Kansu  general  who  was 
in  charge  of  the  Boxer  troops  in  Peking,  and 
who  fled  as  the  bodyguard  of  the  Empress 
Dowager,  means  "  happy  and  auspicious 
omens."     But  to  whom  he  brought  happiness, 


248  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

or  what  auspicious  omens  preceded  his  coming, 
have  never  been  pointed  out.  Nothing  but 
fear  preceded  his  coming,  nothing  but  wailing 
followed  in  his  track,  and  the  Empress  Dowager 
discovered  before  she  was  through  with  him 
that  neither  joy  nor  good  fortune  went  with 
him  whom  she  selected  as  her  bodyguard  and 
protector. 

Again,  take  the  name  of  the  man  who  was 
governor  of  Shantung  when  the  Germans 
snatched  away  the  port  of  Chiao  Chou.  His 
name  was  Li  Ping-heng.  He  was  the  "  Plum  " 
who  "  held  the  scales,"  but  as  a  Chinese  gentle- 
man, with  whom  I  was  talking  a  few  days  ago, 
remarked  :  "  The  scales  which  he  held  would 
never  weigh  out  justice  to  either  his  friends 
or  his  enemies."  The  man  who  was  governor 
of  Shantung  when  the  Boxer  trouble  began, 
and  who  was  more  than  any  other  person  re- 
sponsible for  the  whole  unfortunate  disturb- 
ance, as  well  as  the  murder  of  all  the  foreigners, 
both  at  Pao-ting-fu  and  Tai-Yuan-fu,  is  Yti 
Hsien.  His  name  means  to  "  nurture  virtue." 
He  was  about  as  much  a  patron  of  virtue  as 
was  Nero  in  his  most  fiendish  freaks. 

Two  men  among  the  anti-foreign  group  were 
true  to  the  names  they  bore.  One  was  Kang 
Yi,  the  principal  adviser  of  her  Majesty,  whose 
name  signifies  a  "  strong  determination,"  an 
"  unbending  will  "  :  the  other  was  Hsu  T'ung, 
the  tutor  of  the  heir-apparent,  who  at  the 
time    was    eighty    years   old,    constitutionally 


CHINESE  NAMES    AND    NICKNAMES     249 

anti-foreign,  and  above  bribe-taking.  His 
family  name  signifies  "  slow,"  and  his  given 
name  a  "  varnish  tree."  Slow  as  a  varnish 
tree  he  was,  and  as  steadfast  and  stubborn. 

An  old  friend  of  the  writer  had  several  sons 
in  the  Peking  University.  One  of  them,  the 
youngest,  he  had  not  seen  since  he  entered 
school.  One  day  while  he  was  calling  at  our 
home  I  was  talking  about  this  boy,  and  of  how 
clever  and  attractive  he  was.  He  listened  in 
a  dazed  sort  of  way  until  it  finally  dawned  upon 
him  that  I  was  extolling  the  virtues  of  his 
youngest  son,  and  he  exclaimed  :  "  Oh,  you 
mean  '  Get  a  man.'  "  I  had  spoken  of  him  as 
"  Wei-fan,"  a  name  which  he  did  not  know — 
the  boy's  school  name ;  "  Get  a  man  "  was  his 
milk  name,  "  Wei-fan  "  was  his  school  name. 
Another  friend  called  his  first  boy  "  Got  a 
mountain,"  his  second  "  Got  a  garden,"  and 
his  third  "  Got  a  man." 

The  names  of  girls  are  equally  attractive. 
The  regular  name  for  a  little  Chinese  girl  baby 
is  "  My  thousand  ounces  of  gold."  This  can 
scarcely  be  called  a  name.  It  is  the  way  they 
speak  of  their  little  girls,  just  as  the  ordinary 
term  for  woman  is  met  jen,  "  a  beautiful 
person."  Little  girls  are  called  "  Jade,"  one  of 
the  semi-precious  stones — the  stone  most 
prized  by  the  Chinese — or  "  Pearl,"  "  Rose,"  or 
"  Lily,"  or  any  of  the  flowers.  Indeed  the 
appellation  for  a  Chinese  girl  or  woman  is  just 
about  what  it  is  in  any  other  part  of  the  world. 


250  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

But  it  would  be  a  misrepresentation  of  the 
Chinese  to  stop  here.  They  more  often  speak 
of  the  little  girls,  especially  among  the  common 
people,  as  ya  foil,  or  hsiao  ya  t'ou,  '*  Little 
slave,"  just  as  they  speak  of  a  boy  as  "  Little 
dog,"  "Little  pig,"  or  "Little  bald  head." 
This  is  not  necessarily  a  reflection  on  the 
child,  or  an  indication  that  they  do  not  love 
them,  but  only  a  way  they  have  of  speaking 
to  them,  as  we  call  them  "  Bub,"  "  Sis,"  or 
"  Johnny." 

Again,  they  commonly  speak  of  either  boys 
or  girls  as  "  Number  one,  two,  three,  four,  five, 
or  six,"  and  this  in  all  walks  of  life.  The 
daughters  of  Prince  Ch'ing,  and  the  sisters  of 
Prince  Su,  were  all  well-known  examples  of 
this  custom,  while  the  sons  of  some  of  the 
princes  were  not  known  to  the  servants  of 
their  own  households  except  as  "  Mr.  Three," 
"  Mr.  Four,"  as  I  think  I  have  mentioned 
elsewhere  in  the  case  of  the  family  of  Prince  K'e. 

Those  who  have  been  following  the  conduct 
of  affairs  in  China,  and  reading  the  papers 
without  any  thought  of  the  geographical  names, 
except  their  difficulty  of  pronunciation,  would 
have  found  pleasure  and  instruction  in  knowing 
the  meaning  of  these  almost  unpronounceable, 
but  often  poetic,  characters.  For  instance, 
when  we  read  about  Shan-hai-kuan,  we  would 
be  much  more  appreciative  if  we  understood  that 
shan  means  "  mountain,"  hai  means  "  sea,"  and 
kuan  the  official  residence  or  city  that  controls 


CHINESE   NAMES    AND    NICKNAMES     251 

— the  whole  meaning,  "  The  city  which  guards 
the  narrow  gap  between  the  mountains  and  the 
sea."  Tientsin  is  the  "  Heavenly  Ford," 
Peking  is  the  "  North  Capital,"  Nanking  the 
"South  Capital,"  Peiho  the  "North  River," 
Hunho  the  "  Muddy  River,"  Huangho  the 
"  Yellow  River,"  Yang  Tsun  the  "  village  of 
the  Yang  family,"  Wang  Chia  Chuang  the 
"  village  of  the  Wang  family."  A  single  family 
live  in  a  place,  each  son  bringing  his  wife  to 
the  parental  enclosure,  as  we  have  said  else- 
where, until  a  family  home  becomes  a  village 
retaining  the  name  of  the  man  who  started  it. 
The  names  of  many  of  the  places  and  works 
explain  what  they  are  or  their  character.  The 
Grand  Canal  means  nothing,  but  in  Chinese  its 
name  is  Yun  Liang  Ho,  the  "  River  for  Trans- 
porting Grain,"  for  it  was  constructed  for 
bringing  rice  from  the  south  when  piracy  or 
storms  made  it  dangerous  to  go  by  sea.  The 
name  Chefoo  is  Yen  T'ai,  and  means  "  Rocky 
Terrace,"  while  Shanghai  is  "  On  the  Sea." 

Again,  the  names  of  the  streets  are  de- 
scriptive and  interesting.  The  missions  in 
Peking  are  on  the  following  streets  :  English 
Church  Mission  on  "  Silk  Thread  Street," 
London  Mission  on  "  Donkey  Meat  Street," 
Presbyterian  on  "  Duck  Alley "  near  "  Pipe 
Street,"  Mission  for  the  Blind  on  "  Dried  Fish 
Street,"  American  Board  Mission  at  "  Mouth 
of  Lamp  Market,"  Methodist  Mission  on  "  Filial 
Piety  Lane  or  Alley." 


252  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

The  names  which  the  Chinese  give  to  all 
kinds  of  foreign  inventions,  machinery,  and 
importations,  are  not  without  interest.  The 
railroad  train  is  called  the  "  fire-wheel  cart," 
because  fire  is  the  motive  power.  The  engine 
is  "  fire-cart  head,"  and  the  railroad  "  the 
iron  road."  So  the  steamboat  is  the  "  fire- 
wheel  boat,"  while  the  man-of-war  is  just  the 
"  soldier  boat."  The  bicycle  is  the  "  self- 
moving  cart,"  or  the  "  cart  that  you  can  propel 
yourself."  The  phonograph  is  a  "  talk-box," 
the  telegram  is  an  "  electric  letter,"  while 
"  coal  gas  lamps  "  and  "  electric  gas  lamps  " 
are  sufficiently  clear  to  need  no  explanation. 
A  fountain  pen  is  a  "  water  pen,"  a  desk  is  a 
"  book  table,"  and  a  washstand  is  a  "wash- 
face  table." 

There  is  no  escape  from  nicknaming  in 
China.  The  rule  which  cautions  us  against 
talking  about  feet  in  the  presence  of  a  club- 
footed  man  does  not  apply  there.  Every 
peculiarity,  particularly  if  it  be  physical  and 
obvious,  is  eagerly  and  promptly  seized  upon 
as  a  basis  for  the  almost  universal  habit  of 
nicknaming. 

The  founder  of  the  Taoist  sect  or  religion  goes 
by  the  name  of  "  Old  Boy,"  or  "  Old  Teacher," 
because  it  was  said  he  was  eighty  years  in 
gestation,  and  looked  old  when  he  was  born. 
The  Grand  Dowager  was  commonly  known  as 
the  "  Old  Buddha,"  and  one  of  the  great 
officials  was  as  commonly  called  "  Hump-backed 


CHINESE   NAMES    AND    NICKNAMES     253 

Liu."  If  they  would  not  spare  those  in  high 
life,  it  could  hardly  be  expected  that  the 
common  herd  or  the  "  foreign  devil "  would  be 
left  without  their  proper  nicknames.  Dr. 
Walker  of  our  Methodist  Mission  tells  how 
one  evening,  while  stopping  at  an  inn  in  a 
country  village,  he  was  called  upon  by  a  well- 
dressed  gentleman,  and  greeted  as  "  Old  Mr. 
Foreign  Devil  "  ;  and  my  wife  tells  how  in 
her  early  associations  with  those  in  high  life 
they  spoke  of  her  to  her  assistant  as  the 
"  Devil  Doctor."  Indeed,  the  little  princesses 
would  run  into  their  palaces  and  shout  out  in 
childish  glee,  "The  Devil  Doctor  is  coming," 
and  it  was  not  until  she  had  frowned  upon 
this  custom  that  it  was  changed. 

An  individual  is  usually  nicknamed  from 
some  physical  deformity,  some  habit,  or  some 
mental  or  moral  characteristic.  A  man  whose 
face  is  deeply  pitted  with  smallpox  is  commonly 
known  as  "  Poxy,"  a  man  who  has  an  unthatched 
roof  is  "  Baldy,"  while  a  man  with  a  hare-lip, 
club-feet,  cross  eyes,  deaf  ears,  a  hump  back,  or 
a  lame  leg,  will  invariably  be  known  by  this 
characteristic  attached  to  his  name.  Indeed,  it 
not  infrequently  happens  that  the  nick  is  so 
well  known  that  he  does  not  require  the  name. 
There  was  an  old  woman  in  the  Presbyterian 
Mission  in  Peking  who  was  afflicted  with  a 
birthmark  which  almost  covered  one  side  of 
her  face.  She  was  known  only  as  "  Black-face 
Wang." 


254  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

Even  the  children  have  many  of  their  nur- 
sery rhymes  after  this  style  : 

"  Old  pock-marked  Ma 
He  climbed  up  a  tree, 
A  dog  barked  at  him 
And  a  man  caught  his  knee, 
And  scared  old  Poxy 
Until  he  couldn't  see." 

Here  we  have  another  on  the  fat  man  : 

"  The  big-bellied  merchant, 
He  opened  up  a  stall, 
But  had  to  sell  his  trousers 
To  get  the  capital." 

What  pertains  to  physical  deformities  is  true 
also  of  mental  characteristics.  I  know  a  young 
Chinese  who  goes  by  the  name  of  "  Impulsive 
Liu."  If  his  temper  is  bad  that  gives  him  a 
nickname.  If  he  is  a  book-worm,  as  we  say, 
they  call  him  a  "  Book-cover,"  a  "  Book-insect," 
ora"  Book-bag."  If  he  is  generous  or  bene- 
volent, ambitious  or  avaricious,  just  or  good,  his 
disposition  gives  him  his  name.  A  lazy  or  use- 
less woman  is  justly  and  pertinently  designated 
as  a  "  Bread-basket,"  and  a  "  Clothes-horse." 

Sometimes  the  nickname  is  the  result  of  some 
particular  incident  or  action.  I  knew  one  mis- 
sionary who  preached  a  series  of  sermons  on 
Galatians,  and  was  thereafter  known  in  that 
region  as  "  Galatians  Liu."  Another  preached  a 
series  on  the  Beatitudes,  and  they  called  him 
"  Eight  Beatitudes  Chia." 

One  of  my  friends  was  commonly  known  as 


CHINESE  NAMES    AND    NICKNAMES     255 

"  Mouse  Mei,"  because  he  wore  mouse-coloured 
clothes.  Another,  deeply  loved  by  all  the 
Chinese,  was  known  as  "  Blind  Pai,"  because  his 
eyes  were  deep  set  and  had  a  sightless  appear- 
ance— a  characteristic  I  had  never  noticed  until 
after  I  had  heard  his  nickname. 

One  bald-headed  missionary  in  Peking  was 
known  as  the  "  Buddhist  Priest,"  because  his 
baldness  gave  him  the  appearance  of  having  had 
his  head  shaved.  Another  of  the  same  mission 
who  had  an  immense  beard  was  always  known 
as  "  Mi  Big-Whiskers." 

The  Dr.  Walker  mentioned  above  was  com- 
monly called  by  the  Chinese  Christians  "  The 
Old  Fellow,"  while  another  member  of  the  same 
mission  was  as  commonly  known  as  "  Old  Pao." 
One  of  the  missionaries,  while  in  charge  of 
a  school,  had  the  reputation  of  keeping  order 
even  though  he  had  to  do  it  with  a  ruler,  and 
the  pupils  nicknamed  him  "  Mr.  Board."  A 
teacher  who  kept  a  rigid  account  of  everything 
that  was  bought  for  the  school  was  known  as 
Li  Chang  Kuei-ti,  or  as  we  would  say,  "  Contrac- 
tor "  or  "  Overseer."  One  of  my  friends  was 
known  as  "  Big  Brother  Sea,"  while  I  myself 
was  known  as  "  Uncle  Ho." 

Often  nicknames  are  extremely  pat,  and  hit 
the  mark  with  such  effect  as  to  characterize  for 
life.  Your  only  hope  of  avoiding  some  humili- 
ating or  sardonic  sobriquet  from  your  Chinese 
friends,  is  to  keep  yourself  pure,  gentle,  kind, 
considerate  and  just,  and  then  if  you  are  given  a 


256  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

nickname,  it  will  be  one  which  reflects  credit 
upon  you. 

The  Chinese  child  receives  a  milk  name  when 
he  is  born,  a  school  name  when  he  enters  college, 
a  life  name  when  he  enters  life,  and  a  nickname 
when  he  deserves  it. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

CHINESE  SUPERSTITIONS 

IN  the  reconstruction  of  China  which  is 
coming  with  the  new  Republic,  there  will 
be  monstrous  difficulties  that  will  meet  both 
the  foreigners  and  the  Chinese  officials  at  every 
step  of  the  way.  I  question  whether  the  Chinese 
alone  will  be  able  to  cope  with  them.  They  will 
be  broken  down,  if  they  are  broken  down  at  all, 
by  the  co-operation  of  the  majority,  or  the  most 
powerful  minority,  of  the  intelligent  Chinese  and 
the  foreigners  who  are  genuinely  interested  in 
the  reformation. 

Among  these  difficulties  there  will  be  none  that 
will  be  harder  to  overcome  than  superstition, 
first,  because  superstition  is  so  nearly  related  to 
our  religious  nature,  as  it  is  to  theirs  ;  and 
second,  because  it  is  so  firmly  imbedded  in  the 
character  of  the  people.  This  difficulty  will  be 
enhanced  because  the  Chinese,  like  the  Jew,  are 
a  people  of  character,  beyond  that  of  almost  all, 
if  not  all,  non-Christian  people.  They  give  up 
with  reluctance  any  ideas  that  they  have  held 
through  the  centuries. 

I  wish  to  say  to  my  Chinese  friends  who 
read  this  that  I  have  no  disposition  to  ridicule 

17  257 


258  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 


them  because  of  their  superstitions,  or  to  imply 
that  they  are  the  only  people  that  are  super- 
stitious. I  saw  a  horse-shoe  and  a  mule-shoe 
nailed  on  the  sill  of  the  door  of  the  store  where 
I  made  a  purchase  this  morning.  I  could  name 
a  hundred  superstitions  of  my  own  people  which 
they  would  readily  admit,  but  this  book  is  on 
Home  Life  in  China. 

The  Chinese  are  very  superstitious  about  the 
foreigner,  one  of  which  has  resulted  in  their 
calling  him  Kuei-tzu  or  "  devil." 

A  very  amusing  story  is  told  of  a  red-haired, 
red- whiskered,  blue-eyed  British  Consul  at  Can- 
ton who  was,  as  are  most  of  the  British  officials, 
of  an  investigative  disposition,  and  was  anxious 
to  know  why  it  was  that  the  Chinese  call  us  of 
the  West  "  foreign  devils."  Now  be  it  under- 
stood that  the  Chinese  idea  of  a  demon  is  that 
he  is  a  red-haired,  red-bearded,  blue-eyed  being 
who  quails  at  nothing  that  comes  in  his  way. 
One  day  when  a  Chinese  official  was  calling  on 
the  consul,  the  latter  asked  him  : 

"  Why  is  it  that  the  Chinese  call  us  devils  ?  " 

The  official  at  first  hesitated,  but  being  pressed 
he  finally  said  :   "  I  do  not  care  to  tell  you." 

"  But  I  should  take  it  as  a  great  favour  if  you 
would  tell  me.     I  am  very  anxious  to  know." 

'  I  cannot  tell  you,"  said  the  official. 

"  Why  not  ?  "  asked  the  consul. 

"  Because  you  would  be  angry  if  I  told  you." 

"  By  no  means.  I  would  not  be  so  unreason- 
able as  to  ask  you  a   question,  and  then  be 


CHINESE    SUPERSTITIONS  259 

offended  because  you  answered  it.  On  the  other 
hand,  I  should  be  greatly  obliged  to  you." 

Being  thus  pressed  until  he  was  unable  to 
refuse,  the  official  finally  eyed  the  consul  from 
head  to  foot,  and  said  slowly  and  reluctantly  : 
"  Well,  it  is  because  you  look  like  devils." 

This  natural  superstition  of  the  people  was 
taken  hold  of  by  the  Boxers  in  1900,  and  circu- 
lated still  more  widely  by  all  kinds  of  placards, 
both  in  prose  and  verse.  I  have  before  me  one 
in  verse,  a  part  of  which  reads  as  follows  : 

"  The  devils  are  not  human  beings  like  you  ; 
If  you  doubt  what  I  say, 
You  may  see  any  day, 
That  the  eyes  of  the  devils  in  colour  are  blue." 

In  the  original  this  reads  : 

"  Kuei-tzu-pu-shih-jen-so-ch'uan- 
Ju-pu-hsin, 
Tzu-hsi-k'an, 
Kuei-tzu-yen-chu-tou-f  a-lan. " 

These  superstitions  are  not  only  connected 
with  the  religion  of  the  people,  but  with  their 
natural  science  as  well.  The  Taoist  priests,  who 
were  the  original  alchemists  of  China,  have  or- 
ganized all  that  they  know  and  do  not  know 
about  the  powers  of  nature  into  a  scientific 
system  of  superstition  called  feng  skua  (liter- 
ally "wind  and  water"),  and  this  enters  into 
the  daily  life  of  the  people.  Everything  they 
do  must  be  done  in  such  a  way  as  not  to  inter- 
fere with  the  feng  skua  of  the  place,  or  that  of 


260  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

the  neighbourhood,  else  some  calamity  is  likely 
to  befall  them.  The  principles  of  this  system 
are  believed  by  high  and  low  alike,  if  we  are  to 
judge  from  the  pile  of  earth  that  is  built  about 
the  north  side  of  every  burial-ground.  This 
superstition  may  be  illustrated  by  the  following 
incident  : 

Opposite  the  Methodist  compound  in  Peking 
is  the  residence  of  a  Huang  Tai  Tzu  or  "  yellow 
girdle  man,"  who  is  of  direct  descent  from  the 
royal  family.  Now  the  Chinese  house  is  usually 
built  without  a  chimney,  his  fireplace  being 
under  the  brick  bed,  and  he  keeps  all  the  heat, 
as  well  as  the  smoke  and  gas,  within  the  room, 
but  by  opening  the  door  and  windows  the  gas 
and  smoke  may  escape,  and  the  heated  bricks 
radiate  heat  all  the  night.  The  foreigners,  how- 
ever, for  the  sake  of  cleanliness  and  comfort, 
built  a  chimney  to  a  Chinese  house  which  they 
were  forced  to  use  until  their  own  was  erected, 
and  this  chimney  happened  to  be  just  opposite 
the  middle  of  the  "  yellow  girdle  man's  "  front 
gate. 

As  he  had  a  family  of  five  girls  without  any 
boys,  he  wanted  to  know  the  reason.  Perhaps 
his  house  was  improperly  situated.  He  called 
in  the  geomancer,  who,  with  a  wise  look  on  his 
face,  went  all  about  the  premises,  but  could  find 
nothing  that  violated  the  laws  of  feng  shna. 
As  he  came  out  to  the  front  he  looked  across  the 
the  street,  and  spied  our  chimney,  and  exclaimed: 
"  It  is   that  foreign   devil's  chimney  that  has 


CHINESE    SUPERSTITIONS  261 

destroyed  your  feng  skua,  and  you  will  have 
nothing  but  girl  children  as  long  as  that  chimney 
stands." 

The  old  man  dressed  himself  in  his  silk  gar- 
ments, and  hat — a  Chinese  never  wore  a  hat 
under  the  old  regime  unless  he  was  on  impor- 
tant business — and  came  over  to  call  upon  the 
"  foreign  teachers."  He  spent  a  half-hour  in 
talking  about  everything  that  did  not  concern 
either  of  them — a  Chinese  has  no  idea  of  the 
flight  of  time — time  does  not  fugit  with  them,  it 
just  goes  calmly  on  as  it  has  been  going  for  the 
past  four  thousand  years — but  finally  he  came 
to  the  chimney,  and  how  it  had  spoiled  the  feng 
shua  of  his  palace,  and  he  had  only  girl  children, 
and  would  not  the  honourable  teachers  be  good 
enough  to  tear  down  the  chimney  to  a  level  with 
the  roof  of  the  house. 

We  wanted  to  live  in  peace  and  harmony 
with  our  neighbours,  and  so  we  set  about  it 
at  once,  and  tore  down  the  chimney  until  it 
could  not  be  seen  from  his  premises — and  his 
next  two  babies  were  boys. 

The  missionaries  not  infrequently  encounter 
the  opposition  of  the  people  as  a  result  of  their 
feng  shua  superstition.  Within  the  walls  of 
the  city  of  Foochow  there  is  a  hill  which  the 
inhabitants  of  that  place  look  upon  as  very 
important,  as  governing  the  health  and  con- 
trolling the  general  prosperity  as  well  as  the 
happiness  of  the  people.  In  the  earlier  days 
some  English  missionaries  bought  property  and 


262  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

built  upon  the  hill,  when  the  people,  fearing 
that  the  feng  shua  of  the  city  would  be  injured, 
destroyed  the  entire  property  of  the  mission, 
consisting  of  a  church,  school-house,  and  dwell- 
ing. Again,  the  death  of  an  official  in  Hang- 
chow  was  believed  by  the  people  to  have 
resulted  from  a  mission  building  on  a  hill  not 
far  from  his  official  residence.  The  people 
here  were  more  considerate  than  those  of 
Foochow,  and  requested  the  missionaries  to 
accept  a  site  in  a  different  part  of  the 
city,  to  which,  of  course,  they  readily  con- 
sented. 

For  many  years  the  Methodist  Mission  in 
Tientsin  had  great  difficulty  with  both  officials 
and  people  because  of  a  street  chapel  located 
just  inside  the  east  gate  of  the  city.  The 
reason  given  was  that  the  chapel  destroyed 
the  feng  shua  of  the  place.  Efforts  were  made 
again  and  again  to  settle  the  matter,  but 
always  without  success.  Finally,  both  the 
officials  and  the  missionaries  grew  tired  of  the 
constant  trouble,  and  the  former  offered  either 
to  buy  the  chapel,  or  to  furnish  them  a  new 
site.  They  were  asked  to  select  a  site,  and  if 
they  were  able  to  find  one  that  was  satis- 
factory and  would  give  a  sufficient  amount  of 
money  to  erect  a  suitable  chapel,  the  mission- 
aries would  accept  it  and  move.  A  site  was 
found,  a  chapel  was  erected,  and  everything 
was  moved  away  from  the  old  chapel,  which 
still  stood  for  years  in  the  same  place  and  did 


CHINESE    SUPERSTITIONS  263 

not  seem  to  affect  the  feng  shua  after  the 
foreigners  had  gone. 

All  these  feng  shua  difficulties  do  not  occur, 
however,  between  the  Chinese  and  the  mission- 
aries. When  the  railroad  was  being  surveyed 
between  Tientsin  and  Peking  innumerable  diffi- 
culties were  encountered,  and  the  first  thing  that 
had  to  be  done  in  leaving  Tientsin  was  to  cut  a 
half-circle  of  some  miles  in  order  to  avoid  the 
thousands  of  graves.  When  the  railroad  was 
being  surveyed  from  Canton  to  Wuchang  the 
same  complications  occurred.  Whenever  it  was 
proposed  to  make  a  cut  through  a  mountain, 
the  first  question  that  arose  was,  "Will  it  spoil 
the  feng  shua  of  the  place  ?  "  for  a  range  of  hills 
to  the  north  of  a  plain  or  a  city  acts  as  a  pro- 
tection against  the  bad  winds  of  the  north  in 
the  same  way  as  a  mound  thrown  up  around 
a  graveyard  acts  as  a  protection  to  the  graves, 
or  as  a  range  of  hills  around  the  Ming  tombs 
protects  the  remains  of  the  Ming  emperors 
from  the  chilling  blasts  of  Mongolia.  Feng 
shua  is  more  likely  to  be  disturbed  by  altera- 
tions and  interferences  from  the  north  than 
from  any  other  direction.  For  this  reason 
graves  are  sheltered  by  edifices  which  protect 
them  from  the  northern  blasts. 

Allied  to  this  curious  superstition  is  that 
which  governs  all  boring  or  delving  into  the 
earth.  Dragons,  it  appears,  inhabit  the  under 
regions,  and  to  disturb  them  is  highly  in- 
advisable, not  to  say  perilous.     Opening  mines 


264  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

or  boring  for  oil  must  be  governed  by  strict 
attention  to  this  important  detail.  There  are 
certain  localities  where,  if  the  Taoist  priests  or 
geomancers  should  forbid  the  opening  of  a 
mine  or  the  erecting  of  a  derrick,  a  whole 
village  or  a  score  of  villages  would  arise  en 
masse  and  drive  the  intruding  dragon-dis- 
turbers out  of  the  country.  The  people  of 
these  villages  are  without  either  heat  or 
light,  except  that  furnished  by  the  burning 
of  weeds,  grass,  or  corn-stalks,  or  a  tallow  dip, 
a  dish  of  grease  or  oil,  but  that  does  not 
matter — their  superstitions  outweigh  their 
comforts. 

It  may  not  be  generally  known  that  the 
beautiful  pagoda  at  Tungchou  was  built,  as 
perhaps  most  pagodas  are,  to  preserve  the 
feng  shua  of  the  place  by  hampering  the  move- 
ments of  the  earth-dragon.  Deep  down  in  the 
earth  near  Tungchou  there  is  an  immense 
dragon,  every  winking  of  whose  eye  produces 
an  earthquake.  In  order  to  prevent  this 
calamity  the  geomancers  were  consulted,  and 
it  was  decided  to  erect  a  large  pagoda  exactly 
on  the  dragon's  aye  to  prevent  his  winking, 
since  which  time  there  has  been  no  further 
trouble  from  earthquakes.  Just  how  they 
located  the  eye  it  would  be  interesting  to 
know,  but  the  geomancers  have  never  told. 
That  is  one  of  their  secrets. 

Foreigners  are  not  always  careful  to  avoid 
antagonizing  the  Chinese  unnecessarily  in  this 


CHINESE    SUPERSTITIONS  265 

matter  of  superstition.  For  instance,  no 
Chinese  woman  was  ever  allowed  to  go  on  top 
of  the  wall  of  Peking,  but  foreign  ladies  go 
there  to  walk  whenever  they  please.  Women 
were  also  forbidden  to  enter  many  of  the 
temples,  as  the  Chinese  hold  that  the  mere 
presence  of  a  woman  there  is  defiling,  but 
foreign  ladies  go  in  at  will.  And  it  not  in- 
frequently occurs  that  foreigners  conduct 
themselves  while  in  temples  in  a  way  which 
we  would  never  allow  on  the  part  of  a  Chinese 
in  one  of  our  churches. 

On  one  occasion  an  American  dignitary  of 
high  standing  was  being  shown  through  the 
great  Lama  Temple  north  of  Peking.  See- 
ing a  little  mud  idol  on  one  of  the  altars 
which  he  very  much  desired,  he  said  to  his 
guide  : 

"  See  if  you  cannot  induce  the  old  priest  to 
let  me  have  this  idol." 

"No,  no,"  said  his  missionary  guide,  "  I 
go  through  this  temple  often,  and  I  do  not 
care  to  propose  anything  which  might  be 
offensive  to  the  priest." 

Then,  turning  to  that  functionary,  who  had 
been  listening  to  the  conversation  which,   of  ' 
course,  he  did  not  understand,  the  missionary 
explained  : 

"  The  old  teacher  would  like  to  have  that 
little  idol,  but  I  told  him  I  would  not  ask  you 
for  it." 

The   old  priest,   a   quiet-mannered,  devout- 


266  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

looking  old  man,  glanced  about  the  temple  as 
if  to  see  if  any  other  priests  were  present,  and 
then  said  in  an  undertone  : 

"  Tell  him  to  take  it,  but  not  to  let  anyone 
see  him." 

Thereupon  the  dignitary  backed  up  near 
where  the  idol  was,  slipped  it  into  his  overcoat 
pocket,  and  then  put  a  half  dollar  into  the 
old  priest's  hand,  who  accepted  it  very  much  as 
if  he  had  stolen  it.  It  was  one  of  the  most 
amusing  things  I  have  ever  seen  in  China — a 
high  American  dignitary  trying  to  bribe  a 
Buddhist  priest  to  sell  a  worthless  little  mud 
idol,  which  the  priest  refused  to  do,  but  allowed 
him  to  steal  the  idol  and  then  accepted  the 
bribe-money. 

In  the  court  of  this  same  temple  there  is  a 
large  monument  which  was  built  over  the 
clothes  of  the  Dalai  Lama  of  Tibet,  who  was 
invited  to  Peking  to  visit  the  Emperor  Ch'ien 
Lung,  and  while  there  died  of  smallpox.  His 
body  was  sent  back  to  Tibet,  and  his  clothes 
were  buried  in  this  temple  court  and  this 
monument  erected  to  his  memory.  On  the 
body  of  the  monument  are  carved  pictures  of 
the  ten  transmigrations  through  which  Buddha 
is  supposed  to  have  passed,  in  which  are 
delicate  carvings  of  deer  and  other  animals, 
the  legs  of  which  have  been  broken  off  and 
carried  away  by  relic -hunting  bandits  from 
the  West.  If  Chinese  came  to  our  churches  or 
public   monuments  and  destroyed   or  defaced 


CHINESE    SUPERSTITIONS  267 

them  in  that  way  we  would  have  them  arrested 
and  imprisoned. 

Many  of  these  superstitions  about  foreigners 
are  real,  while  many  others  have  been  originated 
as  bugbears  to  scare  children,  and  then  have 
become  real  causes  of  fear  to  whole  communities. 
Among  the  former  we  may  instance  the  super- 
stition about  taking  out  the  eyes  of  the  Chinese 
for  use  as  medicine  or  in  photography.  Millions 
of  people  believe  this.  The  great  viceroy,  in 
his  wonderful  book,  China's  Only  Hope,  par- 
ticularly mentions  it  as  a  superstition  that  is 
without  foundation. 

While  the  railroad  was  being  constructed 
between  Tientsin  and  Peking,  a  report  was 
circulated  which  became  a  street  rumour  in 
the  capital,  that  the  foreigners  were  putting  a 
Chinese  child  under  each  of  the  railroad  ties. 
There  is  no  doubt,  I  think,  that  this  originated 
from  some  nurse  trying  to  scare  a  child  by 
telling  it  that  if  it  was  not  good  the  "  foreign 
devil  "  would  take  it  and  put  it  under  the  ties 
of  the  iron  road. 

Another  story  of  the  same  nature  as  this  is 
the  cutting  off  of  the  queue.  Someone  tells  of 
a  man  who  was  lying  on  his  brick  bed,  or 
walking  along  the  road,  or  street,  and  put  his 
hand  up  to  take  hold  of  his  queue  only  to  find 
that  it  was  gone,  and  to  see  a  "  foreign  devil  " 
near  by  laughing  at  him.  This  kind  of  an  idle 
story  formerly  spread  in  China  like  wildfire. 
Ask  anyone  who  tells  it  if  he  ever  saw  anyone 


268  HOME   LIFE    IN    CHINA 

who  had  had  his  queue  cut  off,  and  he  will  tell 
you  "  No,"  but  at  the  same  time  there  is  as  much 
of  a  sensation  caused  by  such  a  story  in  Peking 
as  was  caused  in  Park  Row  by  the  Spanish  or 
Boer  War  or  the  Boxer  trouble. 


M 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

CHINESE   HUMOUR 

OST  people  think  that  the  Chinese 
social  life  is  as  solemn  as  a  funeral," 
wrote  a  leading  literary  editor  to  the 
writer  not  long  ago.  It  is  not  a  difficult  matter 
to  understand  why  this  opinion  has  become  so 
general  throughout  Europe  and  America.  In 
all  his  associations  with  foreigners,  as  well  as 
with  all  others  except  his  most  intimate  friends, 
the  Chinaman  seldom  loses  his  dignity,  and  his 
demeanour  has  been  misconstrued  as  solemnity. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  Chinese  children  in  their 
earliest  years  are  taught  to 

"  Be  dignified  in  walking  and  be  orderly  in  gait, 
Never  lean  against  a  doorpost,  but  in  standing,  stand 
up  straight." 

Both  their  clothes  and  their  conduct  make  the 
boys  appear  as  "  little  men,"  and  the  girls  as 
"  little  women."  Girls  of  the  better  families  are 
taught  never  to  laugh  in  the  presence  of  com- 
pany, and  the  provocation  must  be  strong  in- 
deed which  cause  them  to  forget  this  rule.  This, 
however,  represents  the  public  life  of  the  Chinese, 
and  is  no  more  like  their  private  life  than  the 
public  life  of  a  statesman  or  clergyman  is  like 

209 


270  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

his  life  among  his  wife  and  children.  This  is 
graphically  illustrated  both  by  their  printed  and 
unprinted  literature,  as  well  as  by  their  conver- 
sation. 

As  the  foreigner  passes  along  the  street,  he  not 
infrequently  hears  a  boy  say  to  his  companion, 
"  There  goes  your  uncle,"  and  if  he  takes  the 
little  arab  to  task  a  bystander  will  explain  that 
this  is  merely  a  piece  of  fun  between  the  boys — 
at  your  expense,  of  course.  In  the  nursery,  the 
street  songs,  the  street  calls,  the  common,  every- 
day stories,  of  which  China  has  a  goodly  store, 
one  constantly  hears  or  finds  the  most  amusing 
things.  As,  for  instance,  a  vendor  of  small 
wares,  such  as  bran  cakes,  sings  out  in  sten- 
torian tones  that  those  who  eat  his  wares  in 
sufficient  quantity  will  find  that  they  will  cure 
blindness,  baldness,  lameness,  deafness,  pre- 
serve the  teeth,  instruct  the  ignorant,  secure 
positions  for  the  ambitious,  while  to  the  hen- 
pecked husbands  he  says  : 

"  The  man  who  eats  fears  not  his  wife, 
And  the  woman  works  better  all  her  life." 

The  henpecked  husband  is  one  of  the  stand- 
ing jokes  of  the  people.  The  expression  for  this 
is  Kuei  che  ting  teng,  that  is  "  kneel  and  hold  a 
candle  on  his  head."  The  idea  is  that  the  man 
who  fears  his  wife  is  compelled  to  kneel  on  the 
floor  and  hold  a  candlestick  on  his  head  to  enable 
his  wife  to  do  her  work.  That  this  is  an  actual 
condition  in  many  families  is  plainly  seen  from 


CHINESE    HUMOUR  271 

the  position  held  by  the  Grand  Dowager  for 
forty-seven  years,  from  the  authority  of  every 
mother-in-law,  and  from  the  fact  that  it  was 
the  late  Dowager  Lung  Hou  who  gave  up  the 
throne  and  the  dynasty  of  the  Manchus,  and 
then  afterwards  gave  up  the  Forbidden  City, 
and  is  one  of  the  strongest  arguments  against 
the  woman-is-a-labour-burdened-slave-in-China 
argument. 

An  eminent  American  scholar,  in  reviewing  the 
writer's  book  of  Chinese  Mother  Goose  Rhymes, 
speaks  of  some  of  the  illustrations  which  "  pre- 
sent the  Chinese  children  playing  their  sober 
little  games."  Why  he  should  call  such  games 
as  "  Blind-man's-buff,"  "  Eni-me-ni-mi-ni-mo," 
"This  little  pig  went  to  market,"  or  "  Pat-a- 
cake,"  "  sober  little  games,"  unless  it  is  because 
of  preconceived  notions  of  the  Chinese  people,  it 
is  difficult  to  say.  There  is  this  general  opinion 
that  the  Chinese  people  are  a  sober  people,  and 
therefore  whatever  they  do  must  be  done  in  a 
sober  way.  When  they  have  a  dinner-party  it 
must  be  a  sober  party  ;  when  they  play  games 
they  must  be  sober  games  ;  when  they  crack 
jokes  they  must  be  sober  jokes  ;  when  they  sing 
nursery  songs  to  their  children  they  must  be 
sober  songs  ;  when  they  write  poetry  it  must  be 
sober  poetry  ;  and  when  they  go  to  the  theatre 
it  must  be  a  sober  theatre. 

The  Chinese  say  that  "  Where  there  is  much 
smoke  there  must  be  some  fire,"  and  so  this 
general  opinion  of  the  sober  Chinese  must  have 


272  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

some  foundation.  The  cause  of  the  widespread 
idea  of  Chinese  gravity  is,  as  we  believe,  the 
disposition  of  the  people  to  be  dignified.  It 
is  impressed  upon  the  boys  that  : 

"  Whenever  grown  people  are  present,  a  child 
Should  speak  with  a  voice  that  is  gentle  and  mild." 

At  the  same  time  the  girls  are  told  that  they 
should : 

"  Never  turn  your  head  in  walking,  nor  display  your  teeth 
in  mirth. 

Never  move  your  knees  when  sitting,  nor  when  stand- 
ing shake  your  dress. 

Laugh  not  loud  when  pleased  ;  when  angry  never  talk 
with  over-stress. 

Let  the  sexes  ne'er  commingle,  whether  they  be  rich 
or  poor. 

Never  go  beyond  the  gateway,  nor  stand  gazing  from 
the  door." 

Such  are  some  of  the  instructions  to  children 
in  their  books  of  etiquette. 

It  is,  however,  when  people  are  off  their  guard 
that  we  get  glimpses  of  their  real  character.  Go 
into  the  nursery  and  listen  to  the  mothers  and 
nurses  repeat  rhymes  and  jingles  to  their  smiling 
offspring,  and  you  forget  that  they  are  not  to 
"  display  their  teeth  in  mirth,"  for  little  rows  of 
pearls  appear  whenever  the  nurse  tells  that : 

"  There's  a  cow  on  the  mountain,  the  old  saying  goes, 
On  her  legs  are  four  feet,  on  her  feet  are  eight  toes  ; 
Her  tail  is  behind  on  the  end  of  her  back, 
And  her  head  is  in  front  on  the  end  of  her  neck." 


CHINESE    HUMOUR  273 

Almost  all  phases  of  life  are  caricatured  in  the 
same  way.  The  nervous  man  is  described  as 
having  in  his  agitation  jumped  out  of  bed  in  the 
morning,  snatched  up  his  wife's  green  trousers, 
which  he  put  on  by  mistake,  and  started  to 
market  riding  a  donkey,  with  "  his  face  turned 
toward  its  tail."  At  another  time,  he  is  made 
to  say  everything  "  wrong  side  to,"  as,  for  in- 
stance, when  he  hears  a  disturbance  outside  his 
door,  he  describes  it  to  have  been  caused  by  a 
man  biting  a  dog.  He,  in  his  haste,  "  took  up 
the  door  and  he  opened  his  hand."  Running 
outside,  he  says  : 

"  I  snatched  up  the  dog  I  should  say  double-quick, 
And  threw  him  with  all  of  my  force  at  a  brick." 

Then  after  having  been  bitten  by  the  brick, 
he  was  so  disconcerted  as  to  have  been  carried 
in  a  horse,  ridden  astride  of  a  sedan  chair, 
and  to  have : 

"  Blew  on  a  drum  and  beat  on  a  horn." 

In  still  another  of  these  nursery  rhymes  the 
Chinese  doctor  is  laughed  at  as  follows  : 

"  My  wife's  little  daughter  once  fell  very  ill, 
And  we  called  for  a  doctor  to  give  her  a  pill. 
He  wrote  a  prescription  which  now  we  will  give  her, 
In  which  he  has  ordered  a  mosquito's  liver, 
And  then  in  addition  the  heart  of  a  flea, 
And  half  pound  of  fly  wings  to  make  her  some  tea." 

In  still  others  of  their  rhymes,  after  the  style 

of  Dr.  Goldsmith,  we  are  told  that  : 
18 


274  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

"  In  the  first  month  when  it  is  night, 
If  you  are  wise  your  lamp  you'll  light, 
And  when  the  second  month  you  meet, 
If  you  are  hungry  you  should  eat, 
And  in  the  third  month  most  of  all, 
To  build  a  house  you  must  lay  a  wall." 

Chinese  children  are  fond  of  cracking  jokes  on 
bald  heads.  In  one  of  their  rhymes  we  are  told 
that  a  certain  hairless  gentleman  on  a  notable 
occasion  went  to  burn  incense,  not  as  people 
usually  do,  "  to  get  him  an  heir,"  but  rather 
"  to  get  him  some  hair." 

"  When  he  found  in  three  days  all  his  hair  had  returned, 
He  the  god  gave  a  coat  and  more  incense  he  burned, 
When  he  found  in  three  days  all  his  hair  had  dropped 

out, 
He  upset  the  god  and  he  kicked  him  about ; 
Then  the  god  became  angry  and  took  up  a  sword 
And  made  into  dippers  that  bald-headed  gourd." 

But  the  woman  becomes  bald  in  China  even 
more  than  the  man  ;  why,  we  are  not  quite  able 
to  say,  unless  it  is  because  of  the  hair-dressing 
she  uses,  or  because  of  the  fact  that  she  combs 
her  hair  back  so  tight  as  to  drag  it  out  by  the 
roots.  However  that  may  be,  the  children  are 
regaled  with  the  story  of  an  old  woman,  sitting 
by  the  roadside,  with  only  three  hairs  on  her 
head,  and  vainly  endeavouring  to  wear  a  jade 
pin  in  her  hair. 

"  She  put  it  in  once,  but  once  it  fell  out, 
She  put  it  in  twice,  but  twice  it  fell  out, 
But  the  old  woman  said,  '  I  know  what  I'm  about, 
I'll  not  put  it  in  and  it  cannot  fall  out.'  " 


<£US. 


*\ 


CHILDREN  S   GAMES:   THE    MUSICIANS 


CHINESE    HUMOUR  275 

Indeed,  almost  all  phases  of  life  are  laughed 
at  in  the  nursery  and  on  the  playground. 

But  the  cheerful  side  of  Chinese  life  is  not  con- 
fined to  the  nursery,  or  to  childhood,  but  is  found 
in  all  ages  and  all  departments,  as  well  as  all 
ranks  of  life.  The  Chinese  labourer  cracks  the 
same  stale  jokes  as  the  son  of  Erin.  On  one 
occasion,  while  we  were  erecting  one  of  our 
college  buildings  at  the  Peking  University,  one 
of  the  masons  was  trying  to  climb  out  over  the 
basement  wall  instead  of  going  around  to  the 
steps,  and  another  standing  a  rod  or  two  away 
called  to  him  :  "  Come  over  here  and  I'll  help 
you  out."  On  another  occasion  when  I  was 
riding  along  at  the  base  of  the  city  wall,  a  small 
boy,  running  across  the  street,  stumbled  and  fell 
directly  in  front  of  my  donkey.  "  Ah,"  said  a 
passing  stranger,  "  you  bend  low  in  paying  your 
respects  to  the  gentleman." 

The  following  story  is  told  of  two  Chinese 
labourers  who  were  digging  a  well.  Mr.  Chang 
sent  Mr.  Lee  down  into  the  well  to  dig,  while  he 
sat  on  top  and  directed  the  work.  He  first 
ordered  Mr.  Lee  to  "  dig  a  bit  on  this  side,"  then 
"  dig  a  little  more  on  that  side,"  until  the  latter, 
tired  of  both  the  work  and  the  orders,  retorted  : 

"  You  sit  up  there  and  chew  your  tongue, 
while  I  have  to  do  all  the  work." 

"  One  man  here  giving  directions,"  said  Mr. 
Chang,  "  can  do  as  much  as  ten  men  down  there." 

Thereupon  Mr.  Lee  threw  down  his  pick  and 
climbed  up  beside  Mr.  Chang. 


276  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

"  What  are  you  doing  here  ?  "  inquired  the 
latter. 

"  Two  men  up  here,"  answered  Mr.  Lee,  "  can 
do  as  much  as  twenty  men  down  there." 

One  of  the  most  amusing  things  that  followed 
the  Boxer  outbreak  of  1900,  was  the  develop- 
ment of  an  Anglo-Chinese  slang.  The  English 
and  the  American  soldiers — but  mostly  the 
American  soldiers  who  had  been  in  the  Philip- 
pines— though  they  knew  no  Chinese,  went  about 
trying  to  buy  almost  everything  that  took  their 
fancy.  They  learned  to  ask  "  How  much,"  and 
by  gesturing  and  with  their  ringers  the  merchants 
would  tell  them  the  price,  and  then  by  other 
gestures  they  would  make  an  offer,  which  was 
always  very  much  less  than  the  Chinese  asked,  to 
which  he  would  always  answer  "  Pu  kou  pen," 
"  That  isn't  as  much  as  I  paid  for  it." 

The  soldiers  learned  this  expression  Pu  kou 
pen  and  used  it  for  everything  they  wished  to  say, 
such  as,  "  It  isn't  worth  it,"  "  It  isn't  good  stuff," 
"  I  do  not  want  it,"  "  It  isn't  up  to  the  scratch," 
&c.  &c.  It  was  not  long  until  the  Chinese  took 
it  up,  and  if  one  offered  a  rikisha  man  less  than 
he  asked  for  his  services,  he  answered  Pu  kou 
pen.  One  day  I  saw  a  foreigner  trying  to  ride  a 
bicycle,  which  he  was  unable  to  do.  Like  the 
old  woman  with  her  jade  pin,  he  got  on  but  fell 
off,  and  this  he  continued  to  do  again  and  again. 
A  Chinese  stood  watching  him  for  some  time, 
and  then  with  a  wag  of  his  head  he  walked  off 
saying  Pu  kou  pen,  "  he's  not  up  to  the  scratch." 


CHINESE    HUMOUR  277 

An  amusing  story  is  told  about  one  of  China's 
great  philosophers,  Chuang  Tzu,  a  contemporary, 
and  by  many  regarded  as  an  equal,  of  Aristotle. 
One  day  while  the  old  man  was  out  walking,  he 
saw  a  woman  clad  in  widow's  garb,  fanning  a 
newly-made  grave.  He  determined  at  once  to 
inquire  into  the  reason  for  this  peculiar  conduct. 
Sauntering  over  near  where  she  was,  he  attracted 
her  attention  by  a  slight  cough  and  asked  her 
why  she  was  fanning  this  new  grave,  at  which 
she  explained  that  her  husband,  whose  grave  this 
was,  had  made  her  promise  that  she  would  not 
take  a  second  husband  until  the  earth  on  his 
grave  was  dry.  The  old  philosopher,  himself 
possessed  of  magical  power,  half  in  pity  and  half 
in  disdain,  flicked  the  fan  a  few  times  for  her, 
and  the  grave  was  dry,  whereupon  she  modestly 
thanked  him  and  with  unfeigned  satisfaction 
returned  to  her  home. 

"  Such,"  said  Chuang  Tzu  to  himself,  "  is  the 
fickleness  of  woman.  I  wonder  if  my  wife  would 
treat  me  in  this  way  if  I  were  to  die,"  and  he  de- 
termined at  once  to  test  her.  On  returning  home 
he  told  his  wife  the  story,  playfully  saying  that 
she  would'do  the  same  or  worse  if  he  should  die. 
His  wife  made  many  uncomplimentary  remarks 
about  the  faithless  widow,  and  protested  that  in 
case  of  his  demise  she  would  remain  faithful  until 
death.  Chuang  Tzu,  as  we  have  said,  had  magi- 
cal power,  and  soon  began  rolling  his  eyes,  fell 
into  a  fit,  and  feigned  death.  Of  course,  there 
was  nothing  to  do  but  to  get  a  coffin  for  him,  put 


278  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

him  in  it,  and  nail  down  the  lid.  She  then  dressed 
herself  in  widow's  garments,  and  began  burning 
incense  to  her  defunct  husband,  while  he  at  the 
same  time  transformed  himself  into  an  attrac- 
tive young  fellow,  came  and  knelt  beside  her,  and 
joined  in  her  worship,  "  the  while  he  made  eyes 
at  her."  At  first  she  paid  no  attention  to  him, 
but  his  beauty  soon  bewitched  her,  her  heart 
began  to  go  pit-a-pat,  and,  in  a  word,  she  sub- 
mitted to  his  amours,  changed  her  white  mourn- 
ing garments  for  red  wedding  attire,  and  married 
the  young  man  before  the  remains  of  her  old 
husband  had  been  removed  from  her  home. 

They  had  scarcely  finished  their  wedding 
dinner,  and  "  drunk  their  wine  from  the  same 
gourd,"  when  her  young  husband  began  to  mani- 
fest signs  similar  to  those  which  had  taken  off  her 
first  husband,  fell  down  in  a  fit,  and  declared  that 
nothing  would  cure  him  except  a  dose  of  brains 
from  the  head  of  a  living  man,  or,  if  these  could 
not  be  secured,  from  the  head  of  a  man  who  had 
not  been  dead  more  than  three  days.  Where- 
upon the  happy  thought  struck  her  that  the 
brains  of  old  Chuang  would  be  exactly  suited 
to  the  disease  of  young  Chuang,  and  she  began 
battering  open  the  coffin  to  secure  the  medicine. 

When  the  casket  was  opened  the  young  man 
had  disappeared,  and  old  Chuang,  sitting  bolt 
upright,  exclaimed  :  "  Hello  !  how  is  this  ?  I'm 
in  a  coffin,  and  you  have  wedding  garments  on 
instead  of  widow's  weeds  ;  you  have  been  drink- 
ing, too.     Is  that  your  idea  of  propriety  ?  " 


CHINESE    HUMOUR  279 

"  The  fact  of  the  matter  is,"  replied  the  quick- 
witted wife,  "  I  was  under  the  impression  that 
you  might  not  be  dead,  and  so  I  determined  to 
open  your  coffin,  and,  that  I  might  appear  in  fit 
garments  to  receive  you,  I  donned  my  wedding 
apparel,  but  lest  I  might  possibly  be  mistaken 
in  my  fond  hopes,  I  took  a  glass  of  wine  as  a 
disinfectant  against  any  stray  microbes  that 
might  perchance  be  liberated." 

And  the  author  of  this  gruesome  but  amusing 
tale  adds  :  "  Ladies,  do  not  be  over  hasty  in  your 
judgment  of  others,  nor  in  your  accusation,  nor 
in  your  promises  as  to  what  you  would  do  under 
like  circumstances.  One  can  never  tell  what  one 
will  do  until  he  is  tested." 


CHAPTER  XXX 

THE   UNSCIENTIFIC   CHINESE 

EACH  nation  has  its  own  facial,  racial, 
national,  and  educational,  as  well  as 
domestic  characteristics.  It  is  not  a 
difficult  matter  to  identify  a  German,  a  French- 
man, an  Italian,  a  Hindoo,  a  Chinese,  Japanese, 
Korean  or  Esquimo  by  their  features.  These 
may  be  the  result  of  physical  or  mental  causes. 
The  thickness  of  the  lips  may  be  as  much  the 
result  of  determination  as  of  race.  Keep  the 
mouth  tight  shut  and  the  lips  grow  right  side 
out :  stand  throughout  life  gawking  in  ignorance 
at  every  law  of  nature  as  well  as  every  passer- 
by, and  the  lips  grow  wrong  side  out.  Educa- 
tion and  determination  therefore  may  determine 
the  thickness  of  lip  of  a  nation  or  a  race.  Talk 
with  the  eyebrows,  the  hands,  and  the  nose  in 
sneering  grimaces  and  gestures,  and  keep  your 
lips  tightly  closed  as  a  part  of  your  politeness, 
and  you  may  make  your  face  into  that  of  the 
Frenchman.  Talk  German  and  your  facial  ex- 
pression will  be  different  from  that  of  the  man 
who  talks  French. 

Nations  and   races   have   developed  certain 
definite  lines  of  thinking.    The  Jew  was  a  religio- 

280 


THE    UNSCIENTIFIC    CHINESE         281 

moral  thinker  and  as  a  result  has  given  a  religio- 
moral  text -book  to  all  Christendom.  The 
European  was  a  woodsman  with  a  love  of  nature, 
and  after  he  obtained  the  inspiration  of  a  moral 
and  spiritual  uplift,  he  developed  a  scientific 
tendency.  The  Hindoo  crystallized  as  a  reli- 
gionist, and  the  Chinese  as  a  moralist,  and  the 
educational  systems  they  developed  were  a 
result  of  this  tendency. 

The  Chinese,  therefore,  are  not  scientific. 
Thus  far  they  have  been  one  of  the  most  prac- 
tical people  in  the  world,  making  for  themselves 
all  the  practical  appliances  of  life.  But  they 
have  never  developed  the  creative  or  inventive 
faculty.  They  have  a  certain  sort  of  practical 
common  sense ;  indeed,  they  have  a  large 
amount  of  common  sense,  and  this  enables  them 
to  accomplish  almost  all  that  we  are  able  to  do 
— barring  the  results  of  steam,  electricity,  and 
gasolene — but  all  in  a  very  primitive  fashion. 

No  science  has  ever  originated  and  been  car- 
ried to  any  degree  of  perfection  as  a  science  in 
Asia  ;  just  as  no  religion  that  originated  outside 
of  Asia  has  ever  amounted  to  anything  as  a  re- 
ligion. No  great  invention  was  ever  made  and 
developed  by  an  Asiatic  in  Asia.  No  Asiatic 
people  have  ever  been  noted  for  being  a  scien- 
tific people.  Astronomy,  which  originated  in 
Asia,  began  to  be  scientifically  classified  by  the 
Greeks.  There  is  no  reason  why  these  state- 
ments about  the  unscientific  character  of  the 
Asiatics  should  cause  the  noses  of  Europeans 


282  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

and  Americans  to  twitch  in  derision  or  pride, 
for  the  moral  and  religious  knowledge  of  the 
Asiatic  may  change  the  entire  current  of  world- 
thought  during  the  next  few  centuries. 

I  do  not  propose  in  this  chapter  to  discuss  the 
entire  unscientific  character  of  the  Chinese 
people,  and  I  trust  my  readers  will  not  give  me 
credit  for  being  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  they 
have  originated  some  of  the  most  practical 
appliances  of  life,  and  have  stumbled  upon  some 
of  the  greatest  inventions.  For  instance,  they 
made  a  compass — or  a  so^A-pointing  cart — 
nearly  noo  B.C.  ;  gunpowder  (nay,  not  gun- 
powder, for  they  never  made  a  gun,  but 
fire-cracker  powder)  some  200  B.C.  ;  a  musical 
instrument,  the  sheng,  2500  B.C.,  which 
furnished  the  suggestion  of  a  pipe-organ  to  a 
Russian  organ-builder  named  Kratzenstein  years 
ago  ;  a  repeating  bow,  a.d.  300,  which  may 
well  be  considered  the  ancestor  of  our  repeating 
fire-arms  ;  and  they  stumbled  upon  printing  500 
years  before  Gutenberg.  But  the  impractical 
character  of  the  people  has  been  shown  in  their 
failure  to  realize  the  importance  of  their  dis- 
coveries or  inventions,  or  to  make  anything  com- 
mercially useful  therefrom  :  while  their  iron, 
copper,  lead,  silver,  gold,  coal,  and  salt  sources 
of  wealth  have  been  practically  unworked  be- 
cause of  a  lack  of  inventive  genius  or  an  ability 
to  improve  on  what  they  originated,  or  upon 
their  first  ideas. 

When  the  Von  Kettler  monument — a  simple 


THE    UNSCIENTIFIC    CHINESE         283 

stone  pailoh  or  arch — was  erected  across  the 
street  in  Peking,  the  builders  used  17,000  poles 
and  60,000  lbs.  of  rope  to  bind  them  together, 
as  a  staging,  by  which  to  raise  the  stones  in 
place.  When  they  built  a  bridge  across  a  river 
in  the  south,  they  floated  the  stones  in  place  on 
a  raft,  waited  for  the  tide  to  come  in  and  raise 
the  raft,  blocked  the  stone  up  at  the  height  to 
which  it  had  been  raised,  letting  the  raft  sink 
away  from  it,  and  then  by  reblocking  raised  it 
as  many  more  feet  by  the  next  tide  until  it  was 
in  place. 

I  want  to  confine  myself  in  this  chapter  to  the 
unscientific  character  of  the  Chinese  in  the  toys 
which  the  children  use  in  their  play  and  in  their 
homes,  for  in  them  only  the  most  simple  scien- 
tific principles  are  employed.  The  Chinese  have 
never  gone  beyond  the  stage  where  they  look 
upon  toys  as  merely  playthings  for  children. 
Toys,  however,  are  more  than  this.  There  is  a 
philosophy  underlying  the  production  of  toys  as 
old  as  the  world  and  as  broad  as  life  ;  a  philo- 
sophy which,  until  recent  years,  has  been  little 
studied  and  cultivated,  but  which,  like  its  near 
relations,  the  sciences  of  cooking  and  healing, 
has  been  driven  by  the  stern  teacher,  necessity, 
to  a  self-development  for  the  good  of  the  race. 
Playthings  are  as  necessary  a  constituent  of 
childhood  and  of  childish  needs  as  food  or  medi- 
cine, and  contribute  in  a  like  manner  to  the 
health  and  development  of  the  child.  They  are 
the  tools  with  which  he  plies  his  toy  trades  ; 


284  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

they  are  the  instruments  with  which  he  carries 
on  his  play  professions  ;  they  are  the  goods  he 
buys  and  sells  in  his  play  business  ;  the  para- 
phernalia with  which  he  conducts  his  play 
society.  Nay,  they  are  more  than  this  ;  they 
are  the  animals  which  serve  him,  the  associates 
who  entertain  him,  the  comforts  which  minister 
to  him,  and  the  offspring  from  which  comes  no 
posterity. 

The  Chinese  do  not  know  this.  They  do  not 
know  that  toys  are  nature's  first  schools  ;  that 
the  child  with  his  toy  shovels,  spades,  and  hoes 
learns  his  first  lessons  in  agriculture  ;  that  with 
his  hammer  and  nails  he  gets  his  first  lessons  in 
the  various  trades  ;  that  her  mud  pies  and  other 
confectionery  give  the  little  girl  her  first  lessons 
in  preparing  food  ;  her  toy  dinners  and  play- 
house teas  her  first  lessons  in  entertaining  guests ; 
and  her  dolls  her  first  lessons  in  the  domestic 
relations  and  affections.  As  a  consequence,  we 
need  not  hope  to  find  the  business  of  toy-making 
or  the  science  of  child-education  in  a  very 
advanced  state  in  China.  Child's  play  and  toy- 
making  have  been  scientifically  studied  in 
Europe,  and  organized  into  a  great  business,  as 
is  seen  in  the  modern  Kindergarten  and  great  toy- 
factories  and  children's  book-publishing  estab- 
lishments. But  toys  such  as  are  made  in  great 
factories  in  Europe,  are  still  made  by  poor  men 
and  women  in  Oriental  hovels  and  homes. 

These  toys  are  often  interesting,  but  usually 
not  very  intricate,  nothing  like  the  machine  or 


THE  UNSCIENTIFIC   CHINESE         285 

self -moving  toys  of  the  West.  One  of  the  best 
Chinese  toys  is  the  bamboo  top.  It  is  made  the 
same,  spins  the  same,  and  whistles  the  same  as 
our  tin  top,  but  will  stand  much  more  batter- 
ing and  last  a  longer  time.  Another,  similar, 
but  double,  the  two  being  on  the  two  ends  of  a 
carefully  turned  axle,  is  called  a  K'ung  chung, 
and  is  spun  by  two  sticks  and  a  string,  and  is 
the  Chinese  whistling  diabolo.  The  first  one  I 
ever  saw  in  America  I  brought  with  me  from 
China  in  a  collection  of  toys,  but  they  were  soon 
made  in  great  quantities  and  sold  in  all  our  toy- 
shops. The  old  man  from  whom  I  purchased 
my  diabolo s — a  dozen  or  more — was  able  to  spin 
them  in  a  great  variety  of  ways.  He  would  toss 
them  over  or  under  his  foot,  or  up  into  the  air, 
catching  them  on  the  string  as  they  came  down, 
and  would  then  put  the  sticks  with  which  he 
spun  them  under  his  leg,  behind  his  back,  and 
in  every  conceivable  position,  making  the  top 
not  only  sing  but  howl.  That  old  man  had  been 
making  those  toys  for  thirty  years  with  a  knife, 
a  saw,  a  bit  of  sand-paper  or  file,  but  it  had  never 
occurred  to  him  that  he  might  invent  a  machine 
to  do  the  work,  and  open  a  large  toy  factory. 
He  made  toys  in  the  forenoon  in  his  little  hut, 
and  went  out  to  sell  them  in  the  afternoon  or  on 
market  days. 

The  first  toys  to  attract  the  attention  of  the 
child  are  rattles.  The  Chinese  have  a  great 
variety  of  kinds  made  of  wood  or  tin,  gorgeously 
painted  with  water-colours  of   vegetable  dyes, 


286  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

which  are  soon  transferred  from  the  face  of  the 
toy  to  the  face  of  the  child.  The  second  style 
of  toy  to  interest  the  little  ones  is  the  doll  or  the 
animal.  The  Chinese  have  a  great  variety  of 
this  kind  of  toys,  all  very  crude.  The  nose  of 
the  doll  is  sewed  on,  its  ears  pasted  on,  its  queue 
stuck  into  its  head,  while  the  eye  and  other 
features  are  done!  in  colours.  They  know 
nothing  about  opening  and  shutting  their  eyes, 
simple  as  that  principle  may  be,  and  they  have 
made  the  same  mistake  in  their  talking  dolls  and 
animals  that  is  made  by  the  manufacturers  of 
our  own  rubber  goods,  viz.  the  same  whistle 
that  makes  the  doll  cry  also  makes  the  dog  bark, 
the  cow  low,  the  horse  neigh,  the  bird  whistle,  the 
hen  cackle,  and  the  cock  crow. 

They  have  toy  carts — music  carts — made  by 
taut  wires  over  a  sounding-board  struck  by  wire 
pegs  in  the  axle  ;  but  it  has  never  occurred  to 
them  to  make  a  self-propelling  cart  by  a  con- 
cealed spring,  because,  forsooth,  they  cannot 
make  the  spring. 

They  utilize — whether  they  understand  it  or 
not — the  principle  of  the  expansion  of  air  by 
heat,  and  construct  toy  lanterns  with  a  paper 
wheel  in  the  top,  fastened  to  cross-bars,  on  which 
are  hung  men  and  women  riding  upon  animals 
of  all  kinds,  which,  turned  by  the  heat  of  the 
burning  candle,  make  a  very  interesting  merry- 
go-round. 

The  one  toy  which  comes  nearest  to  an  indi- 
cation of  inventive  power  on  the  part  of  the 


THE   UNSCIENTIFIC   CHINESE         287 

Chinese  originator  is  a  set  of  what  they  call  the 
"  fifteen  magic  blocks."  This  is  nothing  more 
than  a  piece  of  pewter  about  three  inches  square 
cut  into  fifteen  pieces,  all  of  which  are  in  pairs 
except  one  which  is  a  rhomboid.  With  these 
fifteen  blocks  they  have  made  more  than  one 
hundred  and  sixty  different  pictures,  each  repre- 
senting some  incident  in  history,  some  mytho- 
logical story  or  fairy  tale,  or  some  snatch  of 
poetry  or  song. 

All  of  the  fifteen  pieces  must  be  used  in  each 
picture  to  make  it  complete.  It  is  unnecessary 
to  say  that  it  is  often  difficult  to  make  the  pic- 
ture even  when  you  have  the  blocks  with  the 
outline  of  the  picture  as  a  pattern.  What,  then, 
must  it  be  to  invent  and  make  the  pictures  in 
the  beginning  ?  It  is  a  toy  for  children,  a  puzzle 
for  grown  folks,  but  is  used  by  all  classes,  from 
the  dowager  princesses  to  the  little  boys  and 
girls  in  the  homes  of  the  common  people. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

DRESS   AND  HOSPITALITY 

AN  interesting  interview  is  said  to  have 
ZA  taken  place  between  a  lady  reporter  and 
-*•  *■  Mrs.  Wu,  the  wife  of  the  Minister  who 
was  so  long  popular  as  China's  representative  at 
Washington,  and  who  directed  the  revolutionary 
foreign  propaganda  from  Shanghai,  was  ap- 
pointed Minister  of  Justice  in  the  Provisional 
Republican  Cabinet,  and  acted  as  chief  Revolu- 
tionary Delegate  at  the  Shanghai  Peace  Con- 
ference. 

It  was  while  he  was  in  Washington  that  this 
lady  reporter  called  on  "  Madame  "  Wu  for  the 
first  interview  that  that  lady  ever  accorded  to 
an  American  reporter.  This  reporter  tells  us 
that  "  Mme.  Wu  smiles  often,  which  is  not  a 
Chinese  habit,"  though  personally  I  am  inclined 
to  think  that  girls  giggle  about  as  much  in  China 
as  in  Europe  or  America,  if  not  more. 

"  I  learned  to  smile  in  America,"  said  Mme. 
Wu,  "  and  to  laugh."  (I  give  it  in  the  re- 
porter's own  words  and  Mme.  Wu's  broken 
English.)  "  Chinese  very  serious  people.  They 
not  laugh  much ;  not  sing  ;  not  dance,"  a  thing 
which  I  personally  very  much  doubt,  except  the 
dancing. 

288 


DRESS    AND    HOSPITALITY  289 

"  Have  they  no  singing  voices  ?  " 

"  How  I  know  ?  They  not  try.  Singing  not 
the  fashion.  Nobody  sings  :  nobody  dance  : 
here  they  do,  and  it  makes  them  light  of  heart. 
Americans  happy-looking  people,  particularly 
the  ladies.  American  ladies  all  agreeable.  It 
is  their  great  virtue,  like  modesty  with  the 
Chinese.  They  are  kind  and  laughing,  and 
open,  and  I  would  say  more — what  is  it  ?  " 

"  Hospitable,"  suggested  the  Minister. 

"  Ah,"  said  Mme.  Wu,  her  shining  eyes  beam- 
ing with  gratitude,  "  that  is  it." 

"  In  China,"  she  continued,  "  there  is  also 
much  hospitality,  but  not  like  here.  Ladies 
make  calls,  but  only  on  ladies.  Not  see  gentle- 
men. They  give  very  many  presents  to  close 
acquaintances,  but  they  not  so  easily  meet 
strangers.  Ladies  stay  close  at  home,  except 
when  they  visit  relatives  and  friends. 

"  Sometimes  I  get  home-sick.  Then  I  like  to 
see  China.  America  very  fine,  but  China  all 
beauty  ;  pretty  flowers  and  birds  and  gardens. 
Houses  all  made  pretty ;  not  so  much  bigness, 
but  much  more  balconies  and  gardens.  This 
pretty  house,  but  different." 

"  Yet  you  seem  to  have  moved  a  good  deal  of 
China  here." 

Madame  Wu  laughed. 

"  All  we  can  get,"  she  replied,  looking  con- 
tentedly at  the  Chinese  effects  in  weird  carvings 
and  Oriental  upholsteries. 

The  pictures  of  the  Legation  are  particularly 
J9 


290  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

Chinese  in  effect  and  colouring,  and  of  Mme. 
Wu's  own  choosing,  for  she  has  artistic  tenden- 
cies. But  it  is  in  Madame's  boudoir  that  the 
real  touch  of  the  Orient  is  given.  Nothing 
modern  or  American  mars  its  quaint  Eastern 
loveliness.  The  bed  is  exquisitely  carved  and 
covered  with  richly  embroidered  silk,  with  which 
the  couches  and  walls  are  also  draped.  Every 
ornament  is  from  the  Orient,  with  hand-carved 
ivory  toilet  accessories  and  water-colours  of 
Chinese  landscapes  (shan  shua,  mountain-and- 
water),  with  lotus  blossoms  and  Chinese  lilies 
painted  on  the  white  frames.  Even  Madame's 
maid,  as  neat  and  polished  as  a  wax  doll,  is  an 
importation  from  her  native  land.  Over  every- 
thing in  the  exquisite  boudoir  is  the  faintest 
possible  scent  of  sandal-wood.  A  revelation  in 
Chinese  decorative  art  are  Madame's  apart- 
ments at  the  Legation.  And  a  revelation  in 
the  tailor's  art  are  her  clothes. 

"  You  do  not  like  ?  "  asked  Madame,  glancing 
at  her  clothes. 

No,  to  be  candid,  I  didn't  like. 
"  Me  too,"  was  the  laughing  response,  as  the 
quick  eyes  looked  me  over  critically  ;    "  your 
clothes  immodest  and  ungraceful." 
"  So  are  yours,  Madame  Wu." 
"  No,"  emphatically,  "  these  modest." 
Mme.  Wu  touched  the  soft  silk  trousers  as  she 
spoke. 

You  couldn't  get  a  self-respecting  American 
woman  to  appear  in  trousers." 


DRESS    AND    HOSPITALITY  291 

"  You  not  get  one  of  China  to  appear  without 

them." 

Which  must  be  a  matter  of  habit,  we  conceded, 
and  which  therefore  has  nothing  to  do  with 
motives  or  morals.     So  we  passed  on. 

"  Your  coat,"  I  suggested,  "  is  beautiful  in 
texture  and  workmanship,  but  it  doesn't  fit." 

"  It  should  not,"  said  Mme.  Wu  decidedly; 
"it  not  modest  to  fit.  Your  dress  too  close. 
That  is  not  nice." 

"  It's  neat." 

"  Ah  !  "  Mme.  Wu  laughed  outright  ;  "  you 
not  care  for  neatness." 

"  But  I  do." 

"  Then  what  for  you  let  your  dress  drag  ?  " 

"  Well,  it  is  more  modest  than  having  it  short 
like  yours,  and  it  is  graceful." 

"  No,  no,"  Mme.'s  eyes  blinked  triumphantly  : 
"  first  modesty,  then  cleanliness  ;  grace  after 
that.  No  grace  without  those  first.  Can  you 
be  graceful  without  being  clean  ?  Anyway, 
there's  your  corset.  How  you  be  graceful  when 
you  uncomfortable  ?  " 

"I'm  not  uncomfortable.  But  there  are  those 
poor  little  feet  ;  how  can  you  be  graceful  when 
you  can't  walk." 

"  I  walk,"  said  Mme.,  who  had  proved  it  by 
entering  the  room  alone,  with  the  aid  of  chairs 
and  tables,  then  added  quickly :  "  Anyway,  I 
prefer  eat  to  walk,"  which  scored  a  point  for 
China. 

Mme.  Wu's  feet  are  not   four  inches  long. 


292  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

They  look  as  if  they  ought  never  to  touch  the 
floor,  but  be  assigned  to  a  favourite  spot  on  the 
mantelpiece.  They  look  like  samples  of  feet  in 
miniature,  and  remind  one  of  the  tiny  models  of 
battle-ships. 

"  There,"  I  said,  putting  a  calf-clad  No.  4  be- 
side the  speck  covered  with  red  silk,  "  is  a  real 
foot,  meant  for  service." 

"  I  guess  so,"  said  Mme.  Wu,  and  shuddered. 

No  wonder  the  Chinese  women  stay  at  home. 
No  wonder  they  are  not  nurses  on  battle-fields, 
or  inspired  to  deeds  of  valour.  No  wonder  that 
progress  is  not  for  them.  They  are  made 
prisoners  for  life  with  the  dwarfing  of  their  feet 
as  surely  as  a  dove  is  trapped  when  its  wings  are 
clipped  (says  the  lady  reporter,  with  which  the 
Chinese  woman  would  not  wholly  agree) . 

"  In  China  not  much  use  to  walk,"  Mme.  Wu 
explained  ;  "  only  around  the  gardens  at  home. 
Chinese  ladies  not  walk  abroad  like  Americans. 
In  streets  they  go  in  sedan  chairs,  always  with 
chaperone.  Folks  in  China  very  careful ;  young 
girls  guarded  very  carefully.  They  never  meet 
men  except  brothers." 

"  But  how  can  it  always  be  helped  ?  Are 
there  never  accidents  ?  Your  brothers,  for  in- 
stance, have  friends  visit  them  ?  " 

"  Yes,  maybe ;  but  women's  apartments 
opposite  side  of  house.  If  man  should  see 
her  she  must  not  talk  to  him  nor  raise  her 
eyes." 

"  Then  there  are  no  flirtations  in  China  ?  " 


DRESS    AND    HOSPITALITY  293 

"Oh  no  ;  all  sedate  and  strict.  China  never 
frivols." 

"  And  your  parents  do  the  courting,  and  you 
marry  the  man  ?  " 

"  They  choose  him." 

"  Then  one  never  falls  in  love  and  marries  ?  " 

"  No  ;  one  marries  and  falls  in  love." 

"  But  it's  a  matter  of  chance  ?  " 

"  A  matter  of  fact.  Obedience  is  as  great  a 
virtue  as  modesty  among  Chinese  women." 

"  But  suppose  the  man  picked  out  for  you 
doesn't  tally  with  your  ideal  ?  " 

"  My  what  ?  " 

"  Your  ideal  man  ;  all  women  have  ideals, 
you  know." 

"  I  don't  know  that ;    I  guess  not  Chinese 


women." 


"  Didn't  you  ever  wonder  what  he  would  be 
like  ?  " 

"  No  ;  Chinese  girls  no  time  think  about  love. 
Before  time  comes  think  about  love  Chinese  girl 
has  husband." 

"  Suppose  you  didn't  like  the  husband  picked 
out  for  you  ?  " 

"  But  I  did  ;   I  loved  when  I  saw  him." 

"  Which  wasn't  till  the  wedding-day  ?  " 

"No." 

"  Suppose  it  hadn't  been  Mr.  Wu,  but  some- 
body else — would  you  have  loved  him  ?  " 

Madame's  brows  contracted  while  she  thought, 
and  the  Minister  smiled  and  waited  with  interest 
for  her  reply.      But   Madame  was   not  to  be 


294  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

caught.  She  has  not  lived  with  a  diplomat  for 
thirteen  years  for  nothing.  Presently  she,  too, 
smiled  : 

"  I  would  love  the  husband  my  parents  choose  ; 
that  is  my  duty.  But  they  not  choose  anyone 
else  for  me.  In  China  we  believe  in  fate.  Every 
couple  that  ought  to  marry  is  tied  together  with 
an  invisible  red  string.  So  when  parents  make 
arrangements,  fate  leads.  Matches  are  made  in 
the  moon.  So  it  always  is  right.  Fate  makes 
one  certain  man  for  each  woman." 

"  How  about  the  widows  who  find  several 
affinities  ?  " 

"Ah,"  said  Mme.  Wu,  drawing  back  in  shocked 
surprise,  "  widows  not  marry  in  China ;  that  is 
disgrace  ;  China  is  virtuous  country.  Ameri- 
cans think  Chinese  women  kept  down.  That 
not  so.  Women  kept  home  because  men  hold 
them  so  high  ;  other  men  must  not  even  look 
upon  them  nor  speak  to  them. 

"  Chinese  women  progressive,  too,  only  in  dif- 
ferent way.  Chinese  women  try  to  be  great, 
also — great  mothers,  great  wives.  Chinese  women 
earnest,  they  not  spend  time  making  their  hair 
crooked  on  irons,  making  their  waists  small, 
making  their  dresses  full  of  frills,  and  changing 
all  time.  Chinese  not  strive  for  how  to  look  but 
how  to  be. 

"  Chinese  men  not  say  to  women,  your  eyes 
lovely.  They  say,  your  character  noble,  your 
temper  sweet,  your  home  good,  well-bred  place  ; 
your  son  fine  boy.     That  is  compliment  in  China. 


DRESS    AND    HOSPITALITY  295 

"  It  is  not  our  goodness  to  have  fine  eyes  or 
shining  hair,  but  good  ways,  that  has  charm  in 
China.     The  looks  not  count. 

"  You  not  understand  our  ways,"  said  Mme. 
thoughtfully.  "  You  not  like  some — about  the 
marriage.  But  it  is  better.  You  think  it  hard. 
It  is  wisdom.  I  know  from  result.  Americans 
love  and  marry  and  get  divorce.  We  marry  and 
love  and  get  home  and  happiness  and  children. 
Which  way  you  like  ?  " 

Mme.  Wu  glanced  from  me  to  the  Minister, 
and  in  the  language  that  has  no  words  she  told 
him  she  was  glad  they  had  followed  the  Chinese 
custom. 

The  conveniences  of  the  Chinese  costume  are 
well  illustrated  in  the  following  incident  : 

A  Chinese  Government  representative  who  was 
new  to  American  ways,  came  to  the  home  of  an 
eminent  New  York  banker  for  a  week's  visit.  It 
was  winter,  but  he  came  without  luggage,  and  yet 
every  day  he  appeared  at  dinner  with  a  change 
of  garments.  At  first  his  hostess  wondered  how 
he  managed  it,  but  soon  she  discovered  that  his 
body  was  his  trunk,  and  that  instead  of  putting 
his  clothes  into  his  trunk,  he  put  his  trunk  into 
his  clothes.  His  garments  were  like  the  layers 
of  an  onion,  except  that  any  layer  might  be  worn 
on  the  outside,  and  as  some  of  his  gowns — for 
such  they  might  be  called — were  silk  lined  with 
fur,  or  fur  lined  with  silk,  he  could  wear  them 
either  side  out,  at  will. 


CHAPTER  XXXII 

DOING   THINGS   BACKWARD 

THE  Chinese  are  a  peculiar  people — I  am 
almost  tempted  to  say,  beautifully 
peculiar.  They  are  odiously  practical. 
Despotically  governed  for  thirty  centuries  or 
more,  they  have  always  been  abominably  free. 
Why,  they  are  so  free  that  the  man  who  keeps 
a  lumber  yard,  if  he  lacks  accommodation  for 
his  lumber  inside  his  fence,  may  dump  it  on  the 
side  walk  for  months  until  it  is  sawed  up  and 
packed  away  or  otherwise  disposed  of.  No  one 
complains,  because  it  is  easier  to  walk  around 
it  than  to  complain — and  besides  one  may  want 
to  do  something  of  that  kind  one's  self  some  day. 

Ugly  in  features  to  our  eyes,  they  are  yet  sub- 
stantial in  colour  and  appearance,  and  make  the 
European  who  is  thoughtless  enough  to  be  photo- 
graphed with  them  look  very  milk-and- watery. 
Proverbially  polite,  they  are  impertinently  in- 
quisitive. Lovers  of  proverbial  truth,  they  will 
at  once  admit  that  they  are  a  nation  of  liars. 
My  personal  teacher  once  told  me  that  "  ten  out 
of  ten  Chinese  will  lie,  myself  not  excepted,"  and 
this  is  so  universally  recognized  that  they  will 
not  be  offended  if  you  tell  them  they  lie. 

Some  of  their  falsehoods  are  of  the  most  ridicu- 

296 


DOING    THINGS    BACKWARD  297 

lous  kind.  The  Congregationalists  at  Tung  Chou 
were  compelled  to  dismiss  one  of  their  pupils  for 
stealing  from  Miss  Evans.  When  told  what  they 
were  about  to  do,  and  asked  what  he  had  to  say 
for  himself,  he  gave  this  explanation  :  "I  was 
accustomed  to  steal  from  my  father  and  mother 
at  home,  and  Miss  Evans  seemed  so  much  like 
my  mother  that  I  stole  from  her." 

Reliable,  substantial,  industrious  and  conser- 
vative, they  are  yet  non-committal,  lazy,  and  to 
use  Mr.  De  Quincey's  word,  "  unrelyuponable." 
They  will  work  for  nothing  and  board  them- 
selves, supporting  their  family  by  what  they 
can  make  by  squeezing  their  employer  and  his 
friends — or  living,  as  we  would  say,  on  "  tips." 

But  one  of  the  most  peculiar  of  all  Chinese 
traits  is  the  habit  they  have  of  doing  things 
backward,  or  diametrically  opposite  to  what  we 
do  them  in  Europe  and  America.  But  as  the 
Chinese  did  them  twenty  or  thirty  centuries 
before  we  did,  perhaps  it  is  we  who  do  them 
backward.  I  am  not  inclined  to  believe  that 
wisdom  will  die  with  us,  or  that  all  that  they  do 
opposite  to  the  way  we  do  it  is  wrong.  But  I 
am  telling  how  the  Chinese  do  things. 

It  was  almost  amusing  to  me  when  I  first  met 
a  Chinese  acquaintance  to  remember  that  instead 
of  raising  my  hat  and  shaking  his  hand,  I  must, 
in  order  to  be  quite  proper,  keep  my  hat  on  and 
shake  my  own  hand.  It  was  no  less  amusing 
when  I  read  in  the  etiquette  of  the  New  Republic 
that  all  these  things  had  been  changed. 


298  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

In  China,  when  a  friend  or  a  relative  dies,  they 
wear  white  for  mourning  instead  of  black,  and 
allow  themselves  to  become  dirty  instead  of 
keeping  themselves  clean  and  neat.  The  more 
unshaven  and  forlorn  they  look,  the  more  mourn- 
ful they  appear. 

They  turn  to  the  left  when  passing  each  other 
on  the  street  instead  of  to  the  right.  This,  of 
course,  is  not  confined  to  China. 

When  they  write  their  name  they  use  their 
family  name  first— as  it  should  be,  being  the 
more  important — and  the  given  name  last. 

Enter  a  school  and  you  hear  a  tremendous 
noise  as  of  a  hundred  persons  talking  at  the 
same  time  ;  it  is  the  pupils  studying.  They  all 
study  aloud. 

When  the  carpenter  uses  his  line,  instead  of 
using  dry  white  or  blue  chalk,  he  uses  wet  black 
ink. 

When  a  Chinese  women  sits  down  to  sew,  she 
pins  the  work  to  her  bosom  and  sews  from  her 
instead  of  pinning  it  to  her  knee  and  sewing 
toward  her  as  our  women  do.  She  wears  her 
thimble  between  the  first  and  second  joint  of  her 
second  finger  instead  of  on  the  end  of  her  finger 
as  our  women  do.  She  thus  gets  a  stronger 
pressure,  and  can  wear  her  thimble  as  a  ring  when 
it  is  not  in  use. 

They  open  their  book  at  the  right  side  instead 
of  the  left,  and  begin  reading  at  the  right  side  of 
the  page.  They  read  from  top  to  bottom,  put 
the  /ooZ-notes  at  the  top  of  the  page,  and  the 


DOING    THINGS    BACKWARD  299 

running  title  and  chapter  heading  and  page 
number  on  the  edge  of  the  page,  print  on  one 
side  of  the  paper  only,  fold  it  at  the  outer  edge, 
and  cut  it  at  the  back  where  the  leaves  are 
sewed  together. 

Instead  of  blacking  their  shoes,  they  whiten 
only  the  edges  of  the  soles. 

They  wear  their  vest  or  sleeveless  garment  on 
the  outside,  and  often  have  each  outer  garment 
a  little  shorter  than  the  one  beneath,  as  though 
our  undercoat  were  longer  than  our  overcoat,  or 
a  lady's  petticoat  were  longer  than  her  skirt.  I 
have  known  gentlemen,  earls,  take  off  one 
garment  after  the  other  while  dining,  on  the 
pretence  that  it  was  too  warm,  when  in  reality 
it  was,  or  seemed  to  be,  only  to  show  what  rich 
garments  they  had  on. 

In  company,  they  keep  their  hats  on  while  we 
take  ours  off. 

We  stick  the  candle  into  the  candlestick  and 
waste  about  an  inch ;  they  stick  the  candlestick, 
or  a  pointed  nail  in  the  top  of  it,  into  a  straw  in 
the  bottom  of  the  candle,  and  burn  it  all. 

Our  ladies  wear  their  hair  banged  on  their 
foreheads,  while  the  Chinese  ladies  usually  wear 
theirs  banged  in  the  back  of  their  necks. 

We  build  the  most  attractive  side  of  our  house 
toward  the  street,  and  often  throw  the  dirt  in  the 
back  yard,  while  the  Chinese  build  the  least  at- 
tractive— windowless — side  outward  and  throw 
all  their  dirt  into  the  street. 

When  we  speak  of  the  points  of  the  compass 


300  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

we  say  north,  south,  east,  west — the  Chinese 
always  say  east,  west,  south,  north.  Even  their 
compass  is  contrary,  as  it  points  according  to 
the  Chinese  toward  the  south  instead  of  the 
north,  and  so  they  call  it  a  chih-nan-che,  a  south- 
pointing  cart,  or  chih-nan-chen,  a  south-pointing 
needle. 

We  would  not  have  much  respect  for  a  Euro- 
pean or  an  American  who  wore  a  switch,  yet 
under  the  old  regime  every  man  in  China  who 
could  afford  it  wore  one  braided  in  his  queue, 
unless  he  had  an  exceptional  wealth  of  hair. 

Both  men  and  women  wear  trousers,  the  only 
difference  being  that  the  women's  are  decorated 
more  than  the  men's,  and  the  men  wear  skirts 
that  reach  nearly  to  their  feet,  while  those  of 
the  women  only  reach  their  knees.  The  shape 
of  the  limb,  however,  is  never  exposed. 

The  streets  in  Western  cities  are  about  six  or 
eight  inches  lower  than  the  side  walks,  while 
those  in  China  were  built  up  two  feet  above. 

In  European  stores  we  put  our  most  beautiful 
goods  in  the  front  window,  In  China,  they  lock 
them  up  in  the  last  little  cubby-hole  in  the  back- 
end  of  the  shop. 

With  us  the  right  side  is  the  place  of  honour, 
in  China  the  place  of  honour  is  at  the  left. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 

RECENT  CHANGES   IN   HOME   LIFE 

IT  may  reasonably  be  expected  that  the  re- 
cent reforms  in  the  Chinese  government, 
the  change  from  a  monarchy  to  a  republic, 
will  bring  about  corresponding  changes  in  social 
and  domestic  life.  We  may  expect  to  see 
changes  in  the  architecture  and  the  furnishings 
of  their  homes,  in  their  manner  of  living,  the 
style  of  their  clothing,  as  well  as  in  their  games, 
their  recreation,  and  their  work. 

Not  long  after  the  Boxer  troubles  of  1900,  the 
Mayor  of  the  city  of  Peking,  who  was  known  as 
the  most  anti-foreign  Chinese  in  the  capital, 
came  to  call  on  me  after  I  had  rebuilt  my  home, 
which  the  Boxers  had  burned,  and  during  the 
conversation  he  said  : 

"  I  have  heard  that  the  windows  in  this  new 
house  of  yours  are  so  constructed  that  phut  and 
they  go  up,  and  phut  and  they  come  down.  I 
should  like  to  understand  the  mechanism  of 
those  windows." 

I  went  to  the  window,  unhooked  the  catch, 
and  phut  it  went  up,  and  phut  it  came  down. 

"  Ah,"  said  he,  "  that  is  interesting.  How  is 
it  constructed  ?  " 

301 


802  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

I  explained  the  simple  mechanism — the  rope, 
the  weight,  and  the  pulley. 

"  Kuai,  remarkable  !  "  he  exclaimed,  "  that  we 
have  never  thought  of  that  kind  of  thing.  Now 
I  propose  to  build  me  a  house,  and  I  want  to  put 
this  kind  of  windows  in  it ;  can  you  tell  me  where 
I  can  find  mechanics  who  can  do  this  kind  of 
work  ?  " 

Now  it  so  happened  that  just  after  the  Boxer 
movement  had  subsided,  three  of  our  young 
Christian  Chinese  had  opened  a  carpenter-shop 
with  a  capital  of  450  taels,  or  ounces  of  silver — 
about  $350— which  they  called  the  "  Heavenly 
Righteous  Carpenter  Shop."  Almost  immedi- 
ately they  began  getting  orders  from  the  Govern- 
ment to  build  several  sky-scrapers  in  Peking — 
three  or  four  stories  high — which  were  designed 
as  college  buildings  in  connection  with  the  Im- 
perial University  or  other  colleges,  and  as  they 
were  familiar  with  this  style  of  buildings  I  took 
him  to  see  them  and  they  were  employed  to  do 
the  work. 

I  might  add  that  these  young  men  soon  were 
deeper  in  business  than  they  could  manage  with 
their  small  capital.  They  bought  bricks,  lime, 
and  lumber  on  credit  at  a  large  profit  for  the 
dealers,  promising  to  pay  when  the  Government 
had  paid  them.  This  plan  worked  well  so  long 
as  the  Government  paid  according  to  their  pro- 
mises. But  Governments  are  not  always  prompt, 
and  there  came  a  time  when  they  failed  to  pay 
up.      The   carpenter-shop   could  not   pay   the 


BEi    G  \k    CHILDR]         I    '  NTON 


RECENT    CHANGES    IN    HOME    LIFE    303 

dealers,  the  dealers  could  not  pay  the  kiln 
men,  and  it  looked  as  though  things  were  coming 
to  a  standstill.  In  this  dilemma  one  of  the 
members  of  the  firm,  a  young  preacher,  a  friend 
of  mine,  came  to  me  saying  : 

"  We  must  have  13,000  taels "  (ounces  of 
silver). 

"  That  is  a  lot  of  money  !  "  I  exclaimed. 
"  What  security  have  you  to  give  ?  " 

"  We  will  give  the  carpenter-shop,"  he  replied. 

"  That  would  not  amount  to  anything." 

"  Well,  I  have  some  deeds  of  property  outside 
the  chi'en  men;  we  will  give  them,  and  we  will 
all  go  on  the  note." 

"  That  would  not  amount  to  half  13,000 
taels,"  I  objected. 

"  Well,  we  have  to  have  it  or  bust." 

That  is  the  last  argument  to  a  friend. 

I  called  my  wife  in  and  explained  the  matter 
to  her,  for  I  never  enter  into  any  important  busi- 
ness matter  without  her  advice,  and  it  went 
through  her  mind  1300  taels,  and  she  advised 
me  to  help  him  get  it. 

I  did,  and  in  four  years'  time  they  had  cleared 
that  amount  with  interest  on  the  same. 

So  I  said  to  the  Mayor  : 

"  Get  the  T'ien  I  Mu  Ch'ang,  Heavenly 
Righteousness  Carpenter  Shop,  to  build  your 
house  for  you." 

Prince  Su,  the  prince  who  gave  his  palace  for 
the  accommodation  of  the  Chinese  Christians 
during  the  siege  of  Peking,  built  himself  a  house 


304  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

in  foreign  style  and  furnished  the  reception-room 
with  European  furniture,  and  indeed  many 
others  have  done  the  same.  All  the  new 
Government  buildings  that  have  been  and 
are  being  erected  are  built  after  the  style  of 
our  own. 

Instead  of  the  old  paper  windows,  brick  bed, 
brick  floors,  tile  roofs,  and  three-room  buildings 
as  of  yore,  we  are  now  seeing  them  erecting 
buildings  with  glass  windows,  board  floors,  and 
corrugated  iron  roofs,  not  very  unlike  those  in 
the  foreign  missions,  legations,  and  customs 
compounds. 

Among  the  first  changes  to  come  in  the  dress 
of  the  people  will  be  the  combing  of  their  hair, 
the  style  of  their  hats  and  their  shoes.  From 
this  they  will  gradually  go  to  trousers,  coat,  vest, 
and  overcoat.  For  centuries  the  Chinese  shoe 
has  been  made  of  cotton  cloth,  silk,  or  velvet, 
with  thick  quilted  soles  made  of  old  scraps  of 
cloth  or  paper  which  were  easily  soaked  and 
became  soft  in  spite  of  tfi3  quilting.  In  wet 
weather,  they  wore  oiled  cloth  boots  or  shoes, 
with  leather  soles,  but  they  have  now  begun  to 
discard  the  cloth,  silk,  and  velvet,  and  are 
making  their  boots  and  shoes  of  leather  similar 
to  our  own,  except  that  they  follow,  with  some 
modification,  the  Chinese  style. 

The  first  change  in  hats  was  seen  in  the  straw 
summer  hat  which  was  easily  made  in  China,  as 
during  the  year  191 1  China  exported  no  less  than 
£1,383,155  worth  of  straw  braid,  most  of  which 


RECENT    CHANGES    IN    HOME    LIFE     305 

came  from  Western  Shantung  and  Southern 
Chihli.  But  the  straw  hat  was  soon  followed 
by  the  small  cap  with  a  tip,  then  by  the  soft  felt 
hat,  and  finally  by  the  derby  and  the  silk  hat, 
and  in  some  localities  at  the  present  time  both 
men  and  women  wear  the  small  cap,  especially 
during  the  cold  months. 

Next  came  the  woven  underclothing,  and  it 
not  infrequently  happened,  in  China  as  in  Japan, 
that  men  went  about,  especially  in  summer  time, 
with  their  legs  encased  in  nothing  but  a  pair 
of  drawers.  Wherever  foreigners  live,  vests  are 
disposed  of  as  an  almost  useless  part  of  a  suit  of 
clothing,  and  so  the  Chinese  servants  would 
capture  these  vests,  wearing  them  outside  their 
coats,  a  la  Chinese  custom. 

Next  came  the  establishment  of  schools  and 
colleges,  in  which  the  boys  were  togged  out  in  a 
mongrel  military  style,  half  Chinese,  half  foreign, 
with  gold  braid  on  coat  and  cap  and  their 
trousers  tucked  in  leather  boots.  Contempora- 
neously with  the  schools  came  the  new  garb  of 
the  soldiers,  when  the  whole  army  came  out  in 
a  uniform  not  very  different  from  that  already 
described  as  worn  by  the  students. 

Even  the  girls  in  some  of  the  girls'  schools 
have  adopted  a  style  of  uniform  not  very  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  the  boys,  and  but  for  their 
hair  and  their  decorations  it  would  be  difficult  to 
distinguish  them  from  their  brothers.  This  style 
of  uniform  is  more  easily  adopted  by  girls  in 
China  than  it  would  be  in  Europe,  a  thing  which 

20 


806  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

we  can  easily  understand  when  we  remember  that 
the  women  of  China  have  always  worn  trousers 
the  same  as  the  men. 

Again,  China  has  adopted  the  Western  calen- 
dar. A  resolution  to  this  effect  was  passed  by 
the  Foreign  Office  on  November  20,  191 1,  and 
it  is  noteworthy  that  Dr.  Sun  Yat-sen  took  the 
oath  as  President  of  the  Nanking  Provisional 
Government  on  January  1,  "  the  first  day  of  the 
first  year  of  the  Republic  of  China."  All  official 
documents  are  now  marked  with  European  dates, 
though  old  custom  in  regard  to  the  method  of 
reckoning  has  not  been  entirely  abandoned  in 
the  provinces. 

As  we  have  indicated  elsewhere,  their  cere- 
monial regulations  have  undergone  a  complete 
change.  We  are  told  in  the  China  Year  Book 
that : 

"  Under  the  Republic  the  elaborate  etiquette 
and  salutations  of  the  old  regime  are  to  give 
place  to  a  simpler  form  of  ceremonial,  and  so 
on  the  17th  of  August  the  following  Bill  was  pro- 
mulgated : 

"1.  Salutations  among  men  shall  consist  of 
raising  the  hat  and  bowing. 

"  2.  At  special  celebrations,  sacrifices,  wed- 
dings, funerals,  and  on  the  occasion  of  national 
celebrations,  the  hat  is  to  be  raised  from  the 
head  and  three  bows  are  to  be  made. 

"3.  At  official  feasts,  republican  ceremonies, 
and  on  ordinary  occasions,  the  salutations  shall 


RECENT    CHANGES    IN    HOME    LIFE    307 

consist  of  raising  the  hat  from  the  head  and 
making  one  bow. 

"4.  At  casual  meetings  the  hat  shall  merely  be 
raised  from  the  head. 

"5.  Military,  naval,  and  police  officials  for 
whom  there  are  special  regulations  shall  not  be 
bound  by  this  law. 

"6.  Articles  2  and  3  shall  apply  to  women, 
with  the  exception  that  they  shall  not  raise 
their  hats.  At  casual  meetings  they  shall  make 
one  bow." 

With  these  six  small  Articles  they  have  dis- 
carded the  elaborate  system  of  ceremonies  of  the 
old  Confucian  regime,  and  in  the  homes  as  in  the 
government  the  K'o-t'ou  or  knocking  the  head 
will  be  for  ever  done  away. 

One  of  the  most  sweeping  changes  that  will  be 
brought  about  in  Home  Life  will  be  the  result  of 
the  suppression  of  the  opium  both  in  growth  and 
trade.     We  are  told  in  an  edict  that : 

"  The  welfare  of  the  people  is  a  matter  of  great 
concern  to  the  Government,  and  this  suppression 
of  the  opium  is  a  matter  which  must  positively 
be  put  through.  All  officials  must  issue  strict 
instructions  to  their  subordinates  to  put  the  pro- 
hibition into  actual  effect,  to  make  it  a  matter 
of  familiar  knowledge  in  men's  houses,  to  get 
completely  rid  of  the  evil.  ...  It  is  further 
commanded  that  the  relative  merits  of  officials 
in  this  respect  must  be  recognized.  ...  If  an 
official  merely  keeps  up  appearances  and,  while 


308  HOME    LIFE    IN    CHINA 

outwardly  obeying,  secretly  disregards  these 
commands,  he  is  to  be  denounced  by  name  for 
punishment." 

Much  of  the  land  which  was  formerly  used  for 
the  cultivation  of  opium  is  now  used  for  raising 
tobacco,  which  was  introduced  into  China  from 
the  Philippines  in  1620. 

Still  another  sweeping  change  in  the  Home 
Life  of  the  people  will  be  the  result  of  the  new 
employments  that  will  come  from  the  building 
of  railroads,  the  opening  of  mines,  and  the  intro- 
duction of  Western  machinery  in  their  manufac- 
tures. While  the  wage  of  a  labouring  man  a  few 
years  ago  was  five  cents  a  day  and  his  board,  it 
has  gradually  risen  until  at  present  it  is  more 
than  double  that  amount,  and  it  will  not  be  many 
years  until  it  will  be  trebled  and  quadrupled. 
The  wealth  obtained  from  their  mines  will  enable 
them  to  buy  British  cloth  and  American  flour, 
Standard  oil  and  Singer  sewing-machines,  bi- 
cycles and  carriages  and  automobiles,  and  thus 
relieve  the  tension  that  has  been  placed  upon  the 
soil.  The  wealth  of  coal,  oil,  gas,  iron,  copper, 
gold,  silver,  and  other  minerals  and  precious 
stones,  will  be  mined,  and  thus  add  to  the  pro- 
ductions of  the  world,  the  wealth  of  China,  and 
the  comforts  of  her  Home  Life. 


CHAPTER   XXXI V 

GAMES   OF  CHINESE   CHILDREN 

DO  the  Chinese  children  have  any  games 
similar  to  those  played  by  our  chil- 
dren?" 

This  question  was  put  to  me  one  day  by  a  lady 
who  was  deeply  interested  in  the  play-life  of 
little  folks. 

"  Yes,  indeed.     Why  not  ?  "  I  replied. 

"  Well,  the  Chinese  always  seemed  to  me  to  be 
such  solemn-looking  people  that  I  have  often 
wondered  whether  they  ever  learn  to  play," 
she  answered. 

It  was  not  long  after  this  when  I  received 
a  letter  from  Dr.  Luther  Gulick  of  New  York, 
requesting  me  to  study  into  the  play-life  of 
Chinese  children  and  allow  him  to  use  the 
results  in  his  Psychology  of  Play. 

I  was  a  teacher  in  the  Peking  University, 
where  we  had  five  hundred  children  and  young 
men,  and  I  called  some  of  the  boys  and  asked 
them  to  play  for  me. 

They  first  began  with  "  I  spy."  One  "  hid 
his  eyes,"  while  the  others  secreted  themselves 
behind  the  house,  the  steps,  trees,  piles  of  brick, 
or  anywhere  they  could  find  a  good  place  from 

309 


310  HOME  LIFE  IN  CHINA 

which  they  could  watch  the  catcher  without 
being  seen,  and  stand  a  good  chance  of  "  getting 
in  free."  It  was  practically  the  same  game  as 
that  played  by  American  boys,  and  played  in 
the  same  way. 

After  they  had  continued  this  for  a  while  one 
of  the  boys  shouted : 

"  Oh,  let  us  play  the  cat  catching  the  mouse." 

No  sooner  said  than  done.  They  formed  a 
ring,  took  hold  of  each  other's  hands,  and  then 
one  called  out : 

"  Who  will  be  the  mouse  ?  " 

"  Wo  "  (I),  said  the  smallest  boy  of  the  group 
in  a  rather  squeaky  voice  that  reminded  me  of 
a  mouse,  and  he  was  put  inside  the  ring. 

"  Who  will  be  the  cat  ?  " 

"  Wo  yao  tso  mao"  (I  want  to  be  the  cat), 
said  a  medium-sized  boy,  and  he  was  turned 
outside  the  ring. 

The  mouse  stayed  as  far  away  from  the  cat 
as  possible,  keeping  the  whole  width  of  the  ring 
between  them.     Then  the  cat  called  out : 

"  Is  my  brother  mouse  at  home  ?  " 

The  mouse  was  not  quite  ready,  and  so  he 
answered  in  very  good  cat  talk  : 

"  Not  ready  yet." 

In  a  very  short  time  he  had  taken  off  his  coat, 
tied  his  girdle  tight  around  his  waist,  so  as  to  be 
as  agile  as  possible,  and  as  hard  to  get  hold  of, 
and  then  he  called  out : 

"  Ready,"  and  the  game  began. 

He  slipped  out  between  the  two  boys  nearest 


GAMES  OF  CHINESE   CHILDREN       311 

him  just  as  the  cat  entered  the  ring  on  the 
opposite  side.  Then  he  popped  into  the  ring 
between  two  other  boys,  and  he  kept  going  in 
and  out  as  fast  as  he  could,  so  as  to  bewilder 
the  cat,  for  it  is  a  rule  of  the  game  that  the  cat 
has  to  follow  the  mouse,  always  going  in  and 
out  between  the  same  boys  he  does,  and  he  dare 
not  catch  the  mouse,  no  matter  how  near  he  is 
to  him,  so  long  as  there  is  a  "  hole  "  he  has  not 
gone  through. 

Finally,  however,  the  little  mouse  got  tired, 
and  the  big  cat  caught  him  and  "  ate  him,"  and 
one  of  the  most  amusing  parts  of  the  game 
is  the  "  eating  "  process.  The  boys  will  not 
allow  anyone  to  be  cat  unless  he  is  a  good  eater. 
He  shakes  the  mouse,  and  then  sits  and  growls, 
and  looks  this  way  and  that,  and  the  other  boys 
crowd  around,  as  though  they  were  going  to 
rescue  the  mouse,  while  he  "  spats  "  and  con- 
tinues to  growl.  He  finally  swallows  the  mouse, 
stretches  his  neck,  as  though  to  get  him  down, 
looks  all  around,  as  if  to  see  if  there  is  any  mouse 
left,  and  the  game  is  done. 

"  Let  me  be  a  candy-blower,"  said  one  of  the 
boys,  pulling  a  rattle  out  of  his  inside  pocket. 

No  sooner  had  he  done  so  than  one  of  the 
larger  boys  snatched  up  the  smallest  of  the 
group  and  started  after  him  pick-a-back. 

The  Chinese  have  all  kinds  of  street  hawkers, 
and  each  has  his  own  particular  kind  of  rattle, 
and  instead  of  calling  out  their  wares,  they  twirl 
their  rattle  and  the  people  call  out  after  them. 


312  HOME  LIFE   IN   CHINA 

The  candy-blower  is  one  of  the  most  interest- 
ing of  these.  He  has  a  bowl  of  liquid  candy 
about  the  consistency  of  molten  glass,  and 
usually  of  a  yellowish  colour.  Then  he  has  a 
package  of  straws,  very  much  like  lemonade 
straws.  He  takes  a  straw,  sticks  the  end  of  it 
into  his  bowl,  twists  up  a  lump  of  candy  on  it, 
and  blows  it  into  any  form  the  child  wants. 
One  boy  called  out : 

'  Blow  me  a  hen,"  another,  "  Blow  me  a  gold- 
fish," another  a  mouse,  and  so  on,  each  getting 
the  kind  he  wants,  for  which  he  pays  one  cash, 
about  the  tenth  of  a  cent. 

It  was  in  the  springtime,  not  long  after  the 
the  New  Year's  festival,  and  the  boys  still  had 
many  of  their  toys,  and  so  after  playing  at 
candy-blower  for  a  short  time  they  organized 
themselves  into  a  band. 

One  had  a  drum,  another  cymbals,  still 
another  a  large  brass  gong,  while  a  fourth 
donned  a  cap  with  a  large  feather  in  it,  put  on 
the  face  of  a  tiger,  and  started  off  as  the  leader 
of  the  band.  It  was  noisy  music,  I  assure  you, 
but  no  "  real  band  "  ever  had  a  better  time. 

While  they  were  playing  band,  four  of  the 
other  boys  got  their  false  faces  and  beard,  their 
swords  and  spears,  and  started  in  pursuit  of  them. 
They  came  upon  them  in  an  open  space  just 
beyond  the  rockery,  and  a  sham  battle  ensued. 

The  leader  of  the  band  growled  as  he  sup- 
posed a  tiger  would,  and  showed  no  signs  of 
fear  of  the  long  spear  and  sharp  sword  of  his 


w?^m» 


V\-\ 


A   GAME   OF    DOMINOES 


GAMES  OF  CHINESE  CHILDREN       313 

antagonists,  and  he  was  backed  up  so  valiantly 
by  the  noise  of  drum  and  cymbal  and  gong  that 
they  conquered  their  savage  enemy,  like  many 
another  foe  has  done,  by  sheer  force  of  their 
noise.  There  was  no  blood  spilt,  there  were  no 
lives— nor  even  tempers — lost,  and  the  boys 
came  out  of  it  without  a  scratch,  though,  as 
they  said,  the  enemy  had  made  a  brave  stand. 
—It  was  a  Waterloo. 

"  Let's  have  something  quieter,"  said  one  of 
the  boys.  "I  am  getting  tired  with  all  this 
fighting,  running,  tumbling,  and  scrambling. 
Let  us  play  something  that  will  rest  us." 

Taking  a  box  of  dominoes  from  his  pocket,  he 
called  out : 

"  Come  inside,"  and  they  all  scampered  for 
the  schoolroom. 

One  pulled  out  a  square  table,  another  turned 
out  the  dominoes,  and  then  there  was  such  a 
shuffling  and  clatter  and  talking  as  you  have 
never  heard — except  among  a  lot  of  schoolboys. 

And  I  left  them  at  their  play,  and  went  and 
found  my  artist  friend  Mr.  Yang  Chu-hsi,  whose 
honorary  name  is  Ch'iin-nien,  and  asked  him  to 
paint  me  pictures  of  the  boys  playing  these 
games.  I  gave  him  some  pieces  of  fine  silk, 
specially  prepared  for  this  purpose,  and  he 
painted  the  pictures,  on  each  of  which  he  wrote 
his  name  and  stamped  his  seal. 


INDEX 


»    Agriculture,  226-234 

Ancestors,  worship  of,  134-160 

Apples,  172,  178 

Apricots,  172 

Asbury  Chapel,  221,  223 

Astronomical  Board,  145 

Baldness,  239 

Bamboo  sprouts,  198 

Barbers,  241 

Barley,  172 

Bean-curd,  180 

Beans,  172,  232 

Beds,  brick,  4,  7,  8,  205 

Beef,  172 

Behaviour  for  Children,  Rules  of, 

49 
Bible  scenes,  226-231 
Birds'-nest  soup,  177 
Blacksmith,  the  country,  241 
Blindness,  238 
Boar,  wild,  173 
Book  of  Poetry,  145 
Book  of  Rites,  96 
Bow,  a  repeating,  282 
Boxer  Rebellion,  246,  247,  248, 

276 
Boys,  15 

Boys'  names,  249,  250 
"Boys,"  166 
Bread,  179,  195 
Bronson,  Mrs.,  186 
Broom-corn,  172,  232 
Bryan,  William  Jennings,  183 
Buddha,  statues  of,  212,  215 
Buddhism,   125,   126,    129,  132, 

134.  x54,  26° 
Burial  of  babies,  14 
Burt,  Mr.,  184,  185 
Butchers,  189 
Butter,  173 


Cabbage,  172,  175,  188,  194 
Camel  trains,  173 


315 


Canon  of  Poetry,  The,  89 

Cantaloupes,  172 

Canton,  182 

Carpenters,  298,  302 

Carts,  207,  234 

Carving,  ivory,  182 

"Cash/*  231 

Celery,  172 

Ceremonies,  family,  131-140 

—  funeral,  147-153 

—  marriage,  141-146 
Chang,  Mrs.,  99 

—  Chih-tung,  244 
Chefoo,  251 
Cheng  erh,  167 

Chen    Huan-chang,    Ph.D.,  89, 

112,  147,  155,  159 
Ch'en  Heng-Te,  222 
Chiang  Ko  (525  B.C.),  30 

—  Shih  (first  century  a.d.),  34 
Chiao  Chou,  248 

Chicken,  172,  173 

Ch'ien  Lung,  Emperor,  266 

Children,  9-41 

China  Year  Book,  quoted,  306 

Chin  Chi-lan,  Miss,  99 

Chinese   Mother   Goose   Rhymes, 

271 
Ch'ing,  Prince,  245,  250 

—  dynasty,  Law  Code  of  the, 
156 

Chiropodist,  241 
Cholera,  126-127 
Chop-sticks,  198 
Chrysanthemums,  218 
Chu  Chin,  Miss,  99 

—  Fu-tzu,  26 

—  Hsi,  46 

—  Shou  -  ch'ang     (1031-1102 
a.d.),  34 

Chun,  Prince,  93 
Chuang  Tzu,  277-279 
Chung  Yu,  29,  152 
Circus,  Chinese,  40 


316 


HOME   LIFE   IN  CHINA 


Classics,  Chinese,  9,  23,  24,  27, 
29,  37.  49,  69,  89,  96,  109,  1 10, 
Mi,  M5-  148,  158,  220 

Classic  for  Girls,  The,  37,  69 

Climate,  173 

Clothes,  18,  199,  305 

Clothing,  Western,  39 

Coffins,  147-153 

Compass,  invention  of,  282 

Concubinage,  no,  1 13-122 

Confectioner,  242 

Confucianism,  38,  119,  125,  149, 

154, 155 
Confucius,  26,  45,  91,  155,  157, 

158 
Conger,  Major,  184 

—  Mrs.,  97,  100 

—  Mrs.,  Letters  from  China,  167 
Conversation,  236 

Cooks,  162,  166,  192,  194 
Coolies,  196,  198,  225 
Co-operation,  62 
Corn,  172,  232 
Crackers,  131,  133,  135 
Cucumbers,  172 
Curios,  182 

Dalai  Lama  of  Tibet,  266 

"Dare  to  Dies,"  99 

Davis,  Miss,  220 

Dead,  dressing  of  the,  147 

Deafness,  239 

Debts,  payment  of,  132 

Deer,  173 

De  Quincey,  quoted,  297 

Der  Ling,  Princess,  103,  133 

Devils,  foreign,  253,  258,  267 

Dinner,  a  Chinese,  178 

Disciples,  45 

Divorce,  seven  reasons  for,  119 

Doctors,  162 

Doctrine  of  name,  154 

Dogs,  189,  229 

Dolls,  13 

Dominoes,  313 

Donkeys,  207,  213 

Dragons,  263-264 

Dress,  102,  288-295 

Dumbness,  239 

Education  for  boys,  24 

—  for  girls,  37,  64 

—  for  the  poor,  42 

—  gestatory,  109 
Educational  system,  38,  46 


Eggs,  172 

Embroidery,  182,  190 
Empress  Dowager,  93,  100,  103, 

106,  107,  246,  252 
Engagements,  66 
Epworth  League,  220 
Evans,  Miss,  295 
Expense  of  living,  192-201 

Famines,  219-225 
Farmers,  189,  195 
Feast  of  Lanterns,  134 
Ferguson,  Dr.  John  C,  38 
Fertilizers,  227 
Festival  of  Chih  Nii,  136 

—  of  Niu  Lang,  136 

—  of  Spring,  135 

—  of  the  Dragon  Boat,  135 

—  of  the  Moon,  137 

—  of  the  New  Year,  131-135 
Filial  duties,  36 

Filial  Piety   Classics  for  Girls, 

The,  37 
Fires,  5 

Fireworks,  131,  133,  135 
Fish,  173,  178 

—  gold,  212 
Five  Classics,  96 
Flora,  213-218 
Flour,  195 
Food, 171-181 
Foot-binding,  63,  64,  291 
Four  Books  for  Girls,  9,  37 
Fruit,  172 

Fuel,  5 

Funeral  ceremonies,  147-153 

Fur,  1 90-1 9 1 

Games,    children's,    271,    309- 

313 
Gamewell,  Mr.,  220 
Gardeners,  195 
Garlic,  172 
Girls,  9-22,  61-68 
Girls'  names,  249-250 
God  of  the  Kitchen,  107, 130, 131 
—  of  Wealth,  130,  134 
Goddess  of  Mercy,  129 
Golden  Rule,  29 
Government,  95 
Grapes,  172 

Great  Learning,  The,  109 
Gruel,  195 

Gulick,  Dr.  Luther,  309 
Gunpowder,  invention  of,  282 


INDEX 


317 


Hand-shaking,  97,  237,  297 

Han  Yii,  43 

Hart,  Sir  Robert,  117 

Hats,  304,  303 

Hayes,  Dr.  W.  M.,  38 

Headland,  Mrs.,   114,   113,   120, 
121 

"  Heavenly  Righteous  Carpenter 
Shop,"  302 

Holcomb,  Mrs.  William  Fames- 
worth,  243 

Home  life,  2,  3,  4 

Houseboats,  202,  209 

Housewives,  102-108 

Howe,  Miss  Gertrude,  38 

Hsun  Tzu,  quoted,  89 

Hsu-T'ung,  248 

Huangho,  the,  251 

Huang  Hsiang,  30,  49 
—  Ting-chien(io6o-iliOA.D.), 

35 

Humour,  269-279 
Hundred  Surnames,  The,  24 
Hunho,  the,  251 

Idols,  126 
Inns,  204-210 
Inventions,  282 

JlNRIKISHAS,  208,  228 
Jokes,  84 
Jung  Lu,  246 

Kalachin,  Princess,  101  ; 

Kang  Yi,  248 

K'e,  Prince,  250 

Kettler,  Von,  monument,  282 

Kuang  Hsu,  Emperor,  93,  151 

Kuo  Chii,  31 

Lama  temple,  265 

Language,  19 

Lanterns,  134,  133 

Lao  Lai  Tzu,  29 

Laundrymen,  164-165 

Law  Code  of  the  Ch'ing  Dynasty, 

156 
Li  Han-chang,  97,  139,  244 

—  Hung-chang,  139,  243,  246 
Liu  Chung-yuan,  quoted,  89 

—  K'un-yi,  245 

—  LiCh'ang,  182,  183 
Locust  tree,  217 

Lo  Feng-lo,  247 
Lowry,  Mr,,  223 


Lu,  Professor,  174 

—  Hsu  (first  century  a.d.),  32 

Markets,  188-191 

Marriage,  n,  66,  67,  81-88,  109 

—  ceremonies,  141-146 
Martin,  Dr.  W.  A.  P.,  38 
Ma  Yii-K'un,  General,  246 
Medicine,  240 

Melons,  172,  178,  233 

Mencius,  47,  152 

Meng  Tsung  (third  century  a.d.), 

S3 

Methodist  Mission,  251,  260,  262 

Miao  Feng  Shan,  206,  212 
Middlemen  for  marriages,  66 
Milky  Way,  the,  136 
Millet,  172,  195,  232 
Mineral  wealth,  308 
Ming  tombs,  263 
— ■  Ti,  Emperor,  125 
Min  Sun,  28 
Missions,  251 
Mohammedanism,  154 
Moism,  125 

Moon,  legend  of  the,  137 
Motherhood,  109-112 
Mothers-in-law,  86 
Mottoes,  132 
Mourning,  237,  298 
Mule-litter,  204 
Mules,  207 
Mutton,  173,  175,  176 

Names,  139,  243-256 

—  milk,  139 

—  school,  139 
Nanking,  251 

New  Year's  customs,  106,  130, 

131-36 
Nicknames,  243-256 
Nieh  Shih-ch'eng,  General,  246 
Nil  Erh  Ching,  69 
Nursery  rhymes,  20,  271,  272 
Nurses,  13 
Nuts,  180 

Oils  used  in  cooking,  175,  176 
Okudo,  Mr.,  100 
Onions,  172,  196 
Operations,  Chinese  fear  of,  116 
Opium,  307 

Pagodas,  211,  264 
Pan  Ku,  quoted,  89 


818 


HOME  LIFE   IN   CHINA 


Pan,  Professor,  222 
Partitions  in  houses,  3 
Partridges,  173 
Pattern  0/  the  Family,  112 
Peaches,  172 
Pears,  172,  178 
Peasants,  226-234 
Peiho,  the,  203,  251 
Peking,  228,  251 
Persimmons,  172 
Pheasants,  173 
Phipps,  Henry,  190 
Pigs,  229 

Ploughing,  226,  233 
Plums,  172 
Porcelain,  old,  182 
Pork,  172,  176 
Potatoes,  172 

—  sweet,  172,  197 
Poverty,  219-225 

Prayers  for  good  harvest,  105 
Primer  for  Girls,  23 
Printing,  invention  of,  282 
Proverbs,  6,  188,  271 

Queue,  267 
Quilts,  199 

Railroads,  209,  263 

Record  of  Rites  (Elder  Tai),  no, 

141, 158 
Red  Lantern  Society,  99 
Religion,  123-130 
Restaurants,  241-242 
Rice,  176,  196 
Richards,  Dr.  Timothy,  38 
Rites,  Canon  of,  148 

—  Record  of,  no,  141,  158 

—  for  marriage,  143-145 

—  or  ceremonies,  Board  of,  96 
Roads,  207 

Robbers,  204 
Rockefeller,  Mr.,  171 

Salutations,  306 
Sand  storms,  203 
Sanitation,  7 
Scholars,  honour  of,  43 
Schools,  298 
School  life,  23,  194,  195 
Servants,  161-170 
Sewing,  65 

Sexes,  separation  of,  89 
Shaking  hands,  Chinese,  97,  237, 
297 


Shang  Ti,  128 

Shan-hai-kuan,  102,  250 

Shantung,  248 

Sharks'  fins,  177 

Shaving  of  head,  17 

Sheng  Hsuan-huai,  245 

Shoemaker,  241 

Shoes,  200 

Shops,  182-191,  300 

Shun  (2317-2208  B.C.),  27 

Silkworms,  103-104 

Slang,  Anglo-Chinese,  276 

Smallpox,  238 

Soothsayers,  139 

Soup,  177 

Soy, 196 

Spinning  Damsel,  the,  30,  136 

Spring  customs,  105 

Ssu-ch'uan,  182 

Ssu-ma,    Hsiang-ju,    poet,    142, 

M3 

—  Kuang,  25 
Stoves,  200 
Summer,  173 

Summer  Palace,  215,  217-218 
Su,  Prince,  250,  303 
Su,  Madame,  100 
Sun,  Mrs.,  97,  98 
Sun  Chia-nai,  245 
Sun  Yat-sen,  Dr.,  306 
Superstitions,  257-268 
Su  Tung-p'o,  43 

Tai,  Elder,  no 

—  Shan,  temple  at,  129 
Tang  Shan,  126 

T'ao  ch'i  child,  a,  16 
Taoism,  125,  154,  259 

—  founder  of,  252 
Tea,  187 

Teeth,  239,  240 

Te  Jui,  Rev.,  102 

Temples,  127,  129,  211,  213 

Tenney,  Dr.  C.  D.,  38 

Thomas,  Dr.,  221 

Thousand  Character  Classic,  The, 

24 
Three  Character  Classic,  220 

—  Precious  Ones,  the,  129 
Tientsin,  229,  251,  262 

Ting  han   (first  century    a.d.), 

Tobacco,  308 
Toys,  283-287 
Trees,  queer,  216,  217 


INDEX 


819 


Trimetrical  Primer,  The,  24 
Trousers,  300 
Ts'ai  Shun,  32 
Tsao,  Lady,  99 

—  Miss,  quoted,  64,  67 
Tseng  Ts'an  (505-437  B.C.),  28 
Ts'ui  Shin,  33 

Tsunhua,  206 
Tuan,  Prince,  247 
Tung  Chou,  264,  297 

—  Fu-hsiang,  General,  247 

—  Yung,  30 
Turnip,  194 

Twenty-four   Patterns   of  Filial 

Piety,  The,  27-35 
Tzu  Lu,  29 

University,  Imperial,  at  Pek- 
ing, 40,  42,  194,  217,  224,  225, 
245,  275 

Vases,  184 

Vegetables,  172,  189,  196 
Vehicles,  modern,  208 
Villages,  6 

Wages  of  labourers,  308 

Waldersee,  Count  Von,  216 

Walker,  Dr.,  253,  255 

Wall,  Great,  27 

Wang  Hsiang  (185-269  a.d.),  31 

—  P'ou  (third  century  a.d.),  32 

—  Wen-shao,  246 
Washington,     Chinese    Minister 

at,  247 


Weddings,  81-88 
Wedding  presents,  81 

—  processions,  83 
Wen  Ti  (180  B.C.),  28 
Wheat,  172 
Wheat-growing,  228 
Williams,  Dr.  E.  T.,  38 
Windows,  paper,  200 
Winter,  173 

—  Palace,  216 

Women,  position  of,  62,  89-101 
Women's  Mutual  Improvement 

Club,  101 
Worship,  Imperial,  128 

—  of  ancestors,  154-160 
■ —  official,  129 

—  various  kinds  of,  127-130 
Wu,  Madame,  288-295 

—  Misses,  100 

—  Chuan,  the  paintings  of,  91 

—  Meng  (fourth  and  fifth  cen- 
turies a.d.),  31 

—  Tai  Shan,  temple  at,  129 

—  Ting-fang,  247 

Yang  Chu-hsi,  313 

—  Hsiang  (first  century  a.d.), 

31 

Yangtze  Valley,  182 

Yen  Tzu,  29 
Yuan  Shih-kai,  93,  245 
Yu   Ch'ien-lou   (fifth   and   sixth 
centuries  a.d.),  33 

—  Hsien,  248 
Yu  Keng,  247 

Yun  Liang  Ho,  the,  251 


Printed  by  Baixantynk,  Hanson  6*  Co. 
at  Paul's  Work,  Edinburgh 


RETURN  TO  the  circulation  desk  of  any 

University  of  California  Library 

or  to  the 

NORTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 
Bldg.  400,  Richmond  Field  Station 
University  of  California 
Richmond,  CA  94804-4698 


ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 
2-month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  calling 

(415)642-6233 
1-year  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing  books 

to  NRLF 
Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made  4  days 

prior  to  due  date 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


>Mffi 


REC- 


FEB171989 


SEP  29  1988 


AUTQD1SCAU629  t)8 


>■      - 


'6969 


U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


C00b737blb 


%K*X 


/ 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


jp^l 

^s^a  ij^^'^feK^  P^^Q'^^^^ft  r^K^^^ 

y^glfr.  t  ~"^j"  u^ijt/VT^--^ "^HEl  W^ji 

^^apjS**   J  ^ 

¥£&J^z*r^&'Jf  SL^S^f'^ff^^^S 

®4^Tw«^1^1 

-  :j»"^^i 

'.iJtTr"  *~~rry:  ■, S&S'M  ff  '.~-*^FT,*~?£*?,x\ & 

£*Trt£t  ~*^'<&i    vt  A*  £^nftre±^..w  A;  V  tS^    4?  A 

y^m 

**^*-^e£r*~v9>  *l?nv 

,  Ji  ^yv  CTf?  n  V'  l~I^\  Vt^"^i>  5w^»Itvy 

£^i£Sffii 

« • 

^ito^    jL^jff'  ^"H^^^^  ^^^^^ 

TgfMg 

^'"•S^.^^^^^^^^^l         ^^ 

*^^am±J=3jEzk  \i^*~~t 

T^^^ls^^^^^^nS 

V^^^^^^I^fcl  BSS^^y*  M  H 

l^eir-Ja^afc 

."-.:■ 

